Practical HR Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
If you hire an employee who later turns out to be violent—and maybe injures a co-worker or a customer—you could get slapped with a negligent hiring lawsuit. How can you avoid this situation? Here are some steps to take:
The federal Bureau of Labor Statistics has just released a new survey showing the latest trends in employee benefits. The study describes what medium and large private employers offer in terms of paid leave, health and retirement benefits, and life insurance, and it provides a useful benchmarkfor comparing your own employee benefit plans. When it […]
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, […]
As some workers’ comp insurers struggle to stay afloat, you may be wondering what would happen if yours became insolvent. In a recent case, a Denny’s employee’s work-related cumulative injury occurred over a one-year period that overlapped two months with the time Denny’s was self-insured for workers’ comp. During the other 10 months, Denny’s was […]
Two new bills extending the rights and benefits provided to spouses to domestic partners were recently signed into law. We’ll take a look at the new laws. State Contractors Can’t Discriminate Under AB 17, certain state contractors have to provide employee benefits for registered domestic partners on the same basis as they do for spouses. […]
The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has announced the latest in its series of e-laws Advisors. The new Advisor assists federal contractors and subcontractors in understanding basic coverage and compliance information for several laws that the DOL’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs enforces. You can access the new Advisor on the DOL website.
In other legislation news, Gov. Schwarzenegger vetoed bills that would have required large employers to spend a certain percentage of their total wages on healthcare insurance and that would have created a single-payer government-run health care system.
President Bush has signed the National Defense Authorization Act (H.R. 4986), which, among other things, expands the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) to permit leave for family members of injured military personnel and military reservists called to active duty.
On Monday, July 19, the Federal Register published interim final regulations from the U.S. Departments of Health and Human Services (HHS), Labor, and the Treasury requiring new health plans beginning on or after September 23, 2010, to cover certain evidence-based preventive care without cost sharing. In other words, plans cannot charge patients copayments, coinsurance, or […]