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News Notes: Court Tosses Out Class-Action Suit Against State Fund

Following a 113-day trial, a San Francisco judge threw out a $1.1 billion class-action lawsuit charging State Compensation Insurance Fund, the state’s largest workers’ comp insurer, with unfair claims reserving and business practices. The suit alleged that from 1989 to 1995, State Fund maintained an illegal claims reserving standard, overcharging its policyholders. The judge’s written […]

Canadian Public Official Acquitted on Charges of Fraud, Breach of Trust

By Mark Colavecchia and Derek Knoechel In June 2003 George Radwanski, Canada’s federal privacy commissioner, resigned three years into his seven-year term amid parliamentary inquiries into travel and hospitality expenses. Several months later, the auditor general released a report leading to a lengthy police investigation of Radwanski’s expense claims. In March 2006, the former privacy […]

Retirement Plans: Major Changes to the 403(b) Rules; How to Prepare

Section 403(b) of the Internal Revenue Code is undergoing its most significant changes in decades. The IRS has issued final regulations for retirement plans governed by Section 403(b) and maintained by nonprofit and tax-exempt organizations and public schools for their employees’ benefit. The plans may be funded through annuity contracts issued by an insurance company, […]

Battening Down the Hatches to Avoid FLSA Overtime Excesses

The arrival of summer is also a harbinger of weather-related emergencies for many communities. For example, the Atlantic hurricane season kicks off at the beginning of June and barrels toward a peak in late summer and early fall. But with such storms comes the potential for unplanned overtime for police officers, firefighters, ambulance drivers, emergency […]

Arbitration: High Court Says Employers Can Require Workers To Arbitrate Employment Disputes; Make Sure Your Agreements Will Hold Up

State and federal courts have grappled for years with the question of whether employers can compel workers to submit their employment disputes to arbitration. Now, in a major victory for employers, the U.S. Supreme Court has cleared up the confusion, giving employers the go-ahead to use mandatory arbitration agreements. The high court decision, coupled with […]

New HIPAA Regulations Welcome Wellness Programs

Under HIPAA, it’s been very difficult to run a company wellness program – until now. If there has been one constant theme in government employment regulations, it’s the battle against discrimination. Anything that even hints at bias is absolutely prohibited, even to the point, some feel, of being counterproductive. Such has been the case with […]

Meal Periods

This meal period deal is driving me nuts. The workers on our assembly line usually work 6-hour shifts. Most of the crew want to work through the meal break, and we’d like that too—more productivity. But we have a few who insist on their meal break. And we can’t run the assembly line without the […]

House Votes to Repeal ACA Small-group Insurance Expansion

The U.S. House of Representatives in a voice vote on Sept. 28 unanimously approved H.R. 1624, the Protecting Affordable Coverage for Employees Act, which would redefine small employer as having 50 or fewer employees and give states the option of expanding the definition to include employers with up to 100 employees. The previous definition had been groups […]

More Ways to Get Candidate Feedback

In part one of this article, we talked about the benefits of getting feedback from job candidates. Now, let’s continue by looking at some tips for doing just that.

‘Through’ Fund Strategy May Serve Near-retirees Best, Vanguard Says

While most U.S. retirement plan participants age 60 or older move their assets out of employer plans within five years of leaving a company, they often don’t touch the funds for years after that, a new report by money manager Vanguard found. As a result, Vanguard suggests to plan sponsors, this tendency of older terminated […]