Practical HR Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
As defined benefit plan sponsors look harder for ways to cut expenses and lower exposure to market forces that challenge keeping their pension obligations funded, an obvious cost to evaluate is their commitment to lifetime retirement benefits for participants. Nearly 40 percent of U.S. employers with DB plans told Aon Hewitt in its recent 2013 […]
Plan sponsors that offer company stock in their retirement plan should watch carefully the results of a recent appellate court reversal that will allow participants in .’s defined contribution retirement plan to pursue an ERISA class action against the bank. They claim it endangered their savings by including company stock in their retirement plan shortly […]
Yesterday, we looked at 3 New Year’s HR tips from James J. McDonald, Jr., managing partner of the Irvine office of Fisher & Phillips, LLP (www.laborlawyers.com). Today, 3 more tips from McDonald, and an invitation to a can’t-miss webinar on California recordkeeping.
On Monday the California Supreme Court ruled, in a divided 4-3 decision, that individuals can’t be held personally liable for retaliation under the California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA), the state’s antibias law.
by Judith E. Kramer The controversial proposed “blacklisting” regulations implementing President Barack Obama’s Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces Executive Order have been published in the May 28 edition of the Federal Register for notice and comment. The proposed regulations were issued by the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Council. The order, which the proposed regulations interpret, […]
One compliance gray area for employers under the family and medical leave laws concerns the notice employees must provide when they need to take leave. Of course, the easiest situation is when an employee fills out a leave request form and gives you a medical certification supporting the need for leave. But as a recent […]
Legislation giving handgun carry permit holders the right to keep guns in their vehicles in public parking lots, including their employer’s parking lot, passed the Tennessee Senate Monday evening, 28-5. The bill, which will go to the House Civil Justice Subcommittee Wednesday afternoon, would give civil immunity to employers for deaths, injuries, or damage involving […]
A jury in Phoenix has awarded $287,640—including $250,000 in punitive damages—in a religious discrimination suit against Alamo Car Rental brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). The EEOC charged Alamo with post-9/11 backlash discrimination on the basis of religion when it fired a Somali customer sales representative in December 2001 for refusing to […]
A company owner and another manager are not fiduciaries as defined by ERISA and the contributions they failed to make to their employees’ pension plans were not plan assets, the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled. This decision supports the premise that individual company officials who serve only as conduits for employees’ payments to […]
The 2015 ERISA Advisory Council plans to build on a 2013 effort by devising new draft model notices and disclosures for lump-sum pension distribution offerings to participants and retirees. Instances of pension risk transfer — often referred to as “derisking,” from the plan sponsor’s point of view — are on the rise among single-employer defined […]