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The Small Business Administration has partnered with insurer Nationwide to publish a guide to inform business owners about their pension plan options and compliance responsibilities. The guide includes information on: how to determine whether to offer a plan and what type of plan to offer; fiduciary responsibilities; and how to find a qualified pension plan […]
Due to some ambiguity in model government language explaining the interplay of the Affordable Care Act with COBRA coverage, the Obama administration has both proposed an update to model COBRA notices and provided a new special enrollment opportunity for COBRA qualified beneficiaries (QBs) to enroll in marketplace coverage. Last year, the U.S. Department of Labor […]
A federal court in California has thrown out a lawsuit we mentioned in the August 1999 issue of California Employer Advisor, which was filed by long-term temps contending that, even though they were paid by employee-leasing agencies, they should be considered regular Atlantic Richfield Co. employees entitled to receive benefits. The temps sought retirement benefits, […]
A federal judge has ordered The Chinese Daily News, one of the Los Angeles area’s largest Chinese-language newspapers, to pay $5.19 million in a class action lawsuit that charged the paper refused to pay overtime and denied meal and rest breaks. Former employee Lynne Wang alleged that the paper required reporters to write five stories […]
First Union Corp. has agreed to pay a whopping $26 million to current and former employees to settle two lawsuits accusing the bank of forcing workers to invest their 401(k) retirement savings in poorly performing mutual funds. The employees charged that First Union included second-rate investment funds in its in-house 401(k) plan and then used […]
The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) released its budget request for the federal fiscal year (FY) 2013 on Feb. 13, as part of the budget proposal President Obama sent to Congress. The DOL budget request for FY 2013 is $12.0 billion, down from $12.6 billion for FY 2012. The department’s press release emphasized this reduction, […]
President Obama has named GE CEO Jeff Immelt as head of the new President’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness. The move is a definite switch from the President’s previous Economic Recovery Advisory Board, lead by Paul Volcker. Now, the focus is not on repair, but on creating new jobs. Immelt knows a little something about […]
New health reform rules finalize policies for non-profit organizations that object on religious or moral grounds to gain an exemption from having to “contract, arrange, pay or refer for” contraceptive coverage. The final rules reflect public feedback received in response to Feb. 6, 2013 proposed rules (78 Fed. Reg. 8456). In the proposed rule, the […]
The Wage and Hour Division of the U.S. Department of Labor has announced that it collected $175 million in back wages in 2002. This is the largest amount collected in 10 years, and represents a 33% increase over back wages collected in 2001.