Practical HR Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
by Kevin C. McCormick Maryland’s new Parental Leave Act (PLA), which grants unpaid parental leave benefits to employees working for some employers too small to be eligible for leave under the federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), will take effect October 1. The PLA requires employers with 15 to 49 employees to provide unpaid […]
Child labor is highly regulated as to hours, age, and type of work, by both the federal and state governments. Let this book program and audio conference help keep you in compliance … and out of court. Yesterday’s Daily Advisor reported the onset of the annual teen summer job hunt … thousands of youngsters seeking […]
By Jane Meacham The U.S. Department of Labor on July 30 quickly revised its field assistance bulletin on retirement plan fee disclosures to clarify a contested question’s impact on so-called brokerage windows and self-directed accounts, which allow plan participants to select investments beyond those designated by an employer-sponsored plan. In the clarification, a new question […]
In just a few days, the East Coast was struck by an earthquake and Hurricane Irene. As one colleague put it: What’s next, a swarm of locusts? Hopefully, all that is next for businesses adversely impacted by these events is cleaning-up and recovering so that normal operations can resume as quickly as possible. Companies should […]
In a startling move, the Obama administration delayed the employer mandate (for companies with 50 or more workers) to offer health insurance to workers or pay a penalty, until January 2015 (a one-year delay) while it reassesses employer reporting burdens and gives employers more time to arrange compliance with the health care reform statute and […]
Wellness is well worth it, says Ron Keen, co-founder and President of PureWellness. That becomes easy to understand when you appreciate that lifestyle is the single largest factor in health, he says. If your entity is typical, Keen says, probably about 20 percent of your employees have diseases or medical problems that are not preventable. […]
The pharmaceutical industry made its case to the U.S. Supreme Court April 16 that pharmaceutical sales representatives (PSRs) are “outside salesmen” under the Fair Labor Standards Act and thus are exempt from the FLSA’s overtime requirements. A lot is at stake in the Court’s upcoming decision, since requiring overtime pay for PSRs could impose billions […]
California Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi has announced that workers’ compensation insurers in the state have filed rate reductions averaging 14.6 percent for policies incepting on or after July 1, 2005. These latest cuts bring the cumulative rate reduction to 26.78 percent since the massive workers’ compensation reforms of 2003 and 2004.
As large numbers of veterans return from Iraq and Afghanistan, employers must remember that their disability accommodation responsibilities have increased in recent months, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said in releasing new guidance Tuesday. The commission updated its Veterans and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA): A Guide for Employers which explains how protections for […]
In recent years many employers have been sued for illegally firing or disciplining employees who blow the whistle or gripe about workplace health and safety considerations or an employer’s alleged illegal activity. But now an employer is in hot water for merely deciding not to rehire a contract worker whose employment term had expired. Here’s […]