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Employers may not have to adjust their qualified transportation fringe benefit programs after all — at least not just yet. A legislative provision that would have affected QTFBs by boosting the mass transit exclusion to the same level as that for qualified parking — the so-called “mass transit parity” provision — did not make it […]
We’re trying to set up our policy for doing reference checks on final applicants. Can you help us with some basic guidelines? What if the former employers won’t talk? Job Descriptions in California: How To Tackle Tricky Drafting Hurdles Job descriptions can be your best friend or your worst enemy from both a practical and […]
Data just released by the U.S. Labor Department show that in 2000 the annual fatality rate for U.S. workplaces dropped 2% to 5,195, an all-time low since the agency began keeping fatality statistics nearly a decade ago. However, while workplace deaths for white and black workers declined, fatality rates increased sharply for Hispanic workers, with […]
Non-federal governmental plans may omit language describing how participants can seek remedies under ERISA in notices to be given when the plan makes an adverse decision. Notices of adverse benefit determinations are required as part of health reform’s claims appeal and external review rules. Such plans need not include the language because ERISA remedies are […]
Misclassifying an employee as exempt from overtime can cost employers potentially huge payouts of past overtime. Last year alone, the federal Department of Labor ordered employers to pay $134 million in back wages to misclassified employees. And that doesn’t count court judgments. Now a new Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decision may cause you to […]
The following are recommended provisions for creating a policy on religious accommodation: State that your organization recognizes that many employees have varying religious beliefs and practices and that all will be respected. State that the company does not allow religious solicitation or proselytizing of other employees, customers, or vendors on company premises or while an […]
HR salaries are rising, but how much does that mean in dollar terms at companies like yours in your area? Here’s a program to find out. Yesterday’s Advisor reported that HR salaries have risen sharply in recent years for those who have the skill sets companies are now looking for. Those skills go beyond the […]
In a recent decision, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has given six former PacBell employees the green light to sue on charges that the company induced them to accept an early retirement package by not disclosing that it was considering offering a better severance program. The court rejected PacBell’s claim that it had no […]
Repealing the individual mandate would result in 12 million fewer adults with health insurance in 2014, but would bump up premiums for coverage only by 2.4 percent, researchers at the RAND Corporation say. No Death Spiral … Health insurance premiums would only be 2.4 percent higher than they would be with an individual mandate and […]