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Fiduciaries of a major Western lumber producer’s group health plan have agreed to settle the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL’s) allegations that the plan violated claims procedure and other requirements of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA).
It’s important to disclose information through ERISA-required documents properly: it can be a plan administrator’s last line of defense if participants allege that they suffered losses because they didn’t know their rights or important plan terms. That obligation has grown in response to the financial scandals of the last decade (Enron, WorldCom, mortgage-leveraged bonds, etc.). […]
Employers may need to prepare for an avalanche of paperwork if the U.S. Senate’s Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (H.R. 3590) passes Congress in its current form (or a similar form). The comprehensive 2,074-page health care reform bill, if passed, would impose many additional burdens on employers. Changes to Health Plans Employers would be […]
Readers: See special survey invitation at bottom. To train supervisors in HR, you need a well-prepared, tightly structured prepared program. We’ve found one … and it’s got time codes! Several recent Advisor articles have pointed to the line supervisor as the key link in your HR compliance chain. Unfortunately, that same supervisor may also be […]
A single BLR PowerPoint® program includes 10 separate presentations in the areas most likely to cause legal troubles. If yesterday’s article offering a “termination primer” said anything, it pointed out the importance of training managers and supervisors in how much classic principles like “employment at will” have been modified by a society in which “sue […]
by Gilda Villaran In 2015, a number of changes were announced to the procedures at Canadian ports of entry. Unfortunately, there continues to be a lack of awareness about these changes on the part of many U.S. companies that occasionally assign employees to work in Canada. As a result, some companies have been caught off […]
President Barack Obama’s latest Executive Order affecting federal contractors isn’t scheduled to take effect for more than a year, but employers with federal contracts are advised to take a look at their sick leave policies now to make sure they will be in compliance when the time comes. On September 7, Obama signed an Executive […]
By: Beth A. Kahn and Hubert T. Lee Arbitration agreements are popular among California employers, but in many instances the employer has to go to court in order enforce the agreement. Recently, the California Supreme Court upheld an arbitration provision in a sales agreement, even though quite a few of the terms were arguable—but also […]
Introverts—they are the new extroverts, right? Quiet, reserved, always sensing and watching. Listening for the next nugget of innovation to grace the lips of a colleague. Or are they tormented by the thought of communication and interaction? Do their extroverted cohorts drive them batty? Or the question that matters, the question I pose is—does it really matter? […]
The U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division has unveiled a free, new Web-based tool to help employers and employees calculate overtime pay under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). The tool provides examples of how FLSA overtime should be completed under some scenarios. The Overtime Calculator advisor computes overtime pay due in […]