Practical HR Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
A corporate policy that does not include pregnancy among the conditions making an employee eligible for light duty is a “neutral and legitimate business practice,” not evidence of bias against pregnant workers, according to a recent court ruling that dismissed a UPS truck driver’s claim that she was the victim of pregnancy discrimination. Employers may […]
The HITECH Act is now here in full. The whole litany of tighter privacy and security requirements is in the long-awaited, long-delayed “omnibus” rules finalized Jan. 17 by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and most of these will have to be met by this Sept. 23. The omnibus rules also include changes […]
A former employee argued that her former employer, which employed fewer than 20 employees (and thus was exempt from COBRA) for eight months of the year, formed an affiliated service group with another employer and thus employed more than 20 employees for four months of that year. Thus, she contended the employer became subject to […]
Many plan sponsors are still having a hard time improving the funding status of their plans, according to indexes measuring the December funding levels of U.S. corporate pension plans. Statistics show plans’ funding rose slightly from November 2012 to December 2012, keeping the month’s funded ratios above the lowest monthly figures for 2012; however, they […]
In a recent case, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals declined to decide whether small companies that are extensions of larger entities must comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act. The court in Reynolds v. American National Red Cross (No. 11-2278, 11-2280 (Dec. 7, 2012)) said it would not address the matter in a […]
Federal agencies will accept alternate definitions of full-time employee for purposes of health reform’s play-or-pay mandate, to allow for industry-specific labor norms and seasonal workers. Some business owners and workers requested special methods of calculating hours for employees: (1) whose compensation is not based on hours, such as salespeople on commission; and (2) whose work […]
Fichthorn, who is vice president in the Philadelphia office of Hay Group, offers the following chart to clarify what employers want and how it compares to what the public wants. Topic Area What Makes Business Sense? What Do Shareholders Want? Where’s Their Breaking Point? Pay Philoso-phy Pay positioning that maps to competitive positioning Pay positioning […]
Participate in this brief survey and see how your health benefits stack up against those of other successful companies. The survey takes only a few minutes to complete. Complete the Survey Now To show our appreciation we’ll send a PDF of the survey results to all participants. (Be sure to include your contact information where […]
Employers may find this new information useful for planning or justifying their retirement plan expenses: Contrary to the popular belief that defined benefit retirement plans are more costly for employers to administer, data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics indicates that private-industry employers now spend more per employee hour worked for defined contribution plans. […]
How can employers protect themselves and reduce the likelihood of retaliation claims when disciplining or terminating an employee who has previously filed a workers’ compensation claim? If a claim of retaliation is feared, what evidence will help prove the employer acted legally?