Practical HR Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
How can employers protect themselves and reduce the likelihood of retaliation claims when disciplining or terminating an employee who has previously filed a workers’ compensation claim? If a claim of retaliation is feared, what evidence will help prove the employer acted legally?
Employers trying to comply with health reform’s play-or-play mandate — and calculate their exposure to penalties — now have more insight based upon a new notice of proposed rulemaking and a new set of questions and answers from the IRS. Under reform, employers have to calculate full-time equivalent employees for one or more of the […]
The Employer’s Concerns There are a number of concerns that management has when contemplating counteroffers: The offer as a precedent. What will be the effect on corporate compensation and benefits and perks programs. Will the counteroffer throw all those programs into disarray? Lack of privacy—transparency. Privacy is generally not an option—the work will get out. […]
New California regulations and pregnancy laws broaden the types of conditions of pregnancy for which workplace accommodations will be required – even if they don’t involve a pregnancy-related disability. With these new regulations on the table, it’s crucial for you to amend your internal policies and practices to ensure compliance with California law.
Employers can’t be instantly ready for how health reform will transform their health plans in 2014; they have to do all the heavy lifting in 2013 in order to achieve preparedness, an attorney from the Epstein Becker & Green law firm said on Dec. 19. He advised employers to see health reform-driven coverage changes in […]
A recent U.S. district court decision is the latest ruling over plan fees and may give a legal foothold to participants seeking restitution for investment decisions they deem imprudent. Judge Susan Richard Nelson of the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota ruled against Ameriprise Financial Inc. in a case concerning allegations that the […]
To expedite distribution of retirement assets from companies in Chapter 7 bankruptcy proceedings, the U.S. Department of Labor wants to allow bankruptcy trustees to use its Abandoned Plan Program. This program establishes a process to terminate abandoned plans so that plan participants and beneficiaries gain quicker access to their benefits; currently, however, bankruptcy trustees do […]
Even as the IRS announces it plans to issue guidance on the use of smartcards with qualified transportation fringe benefits, public comments on such guidance include allegations of impropriety from one vendor. The IRS asked for input on whether it should issue such guidelines (see related story) last May. Thompson Information Services requested copies of […]
Pension liabilities of the 100 largest U.S. corporate defined benefit pension plans decreased by $28 billion in November, while assets increased by $5 billion, bringing the Milliman 100 Pension Funding Index funded status deficit to $466 billion and the funded ratio of 74 percent. The November ratio still lags the year-end 2011 value of 78.7 percent, […]
Large corporations thinking about transferring hefty defined benefit plan payouts to insurance companies for them to manage now have judicial support for that approach. A federal judge in Texas has denied a bid by retired Verizon Communications executives to block the company from making a proposed shift off its books of $7.5 billion in pension […]