Practical HR Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
As the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division steps up enforcement initiatives, the need for employers to monitor their wage and hour practices is growing. Speaking at the Society for Human Resource Management’s 2012 Employment Law and Legislative Conference March 5, Tammy McCutchen of Littler Mendelson in Washington, a former Bush appointee at DOL, […]
The Labor Department underestimated the cost of its proposal extending minimum wage and overtime protections to in-home caregivers underestimates, according to an industry group representing in-home care franchise owners. If the proposal is implemented as planned, the study concludes, both the quality of care provided to seniors and the financial health of the in-home care […]
Supreme Court Review While the case the Supreme Court will hear involves public colleges and universities, the ruling could eventually impact other courts’ decisions on affirmative action programs outside of higher education, notes BLR Legal Editor Susan Schoenfeld. In 2003, the Supreme Court ruled in Grutter v. Bollinger that public colleges and universities could not […]
The failure to administer COBRA continuation coverage notices correctly can cost employers and plan administrators money, time and aggravation, says COBRA expert Paul M. Hamburger, Esq. of Proskauer Rose LLP. He provides four tips they can use to help avoid COBRA notice missteps: (1) prepare clear, accurate and complete COBRA notices; (2) be sure to […]
The broad scope of the Fair Labor Standards Act provides seemingly endless opportunities for debate. The fact that the Supreme Court agreed to hear Christopher v. SmithKline Beecham Corp. later this year (a case out of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit involving worker classification) on the heels of its ruling in […]
The U.S. Labor Department has updated its model forms and notices relating to Family and Medical Leave Act certification. Except for a new expiration date — Feb. 28, 2015 — the new documents are identical to those that expired at the end of last year. Here are links to the forms. WH-380-E Certification of Health […]
The U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) fiscal year 2013 budget request continues many priorities emphasized in the previous year’s budget, such as the effort to combat worker misclassification, while ending or consolidating some programs aimed at helping women and veterans find jobs. The DOL’s 2013 budget request comes in at $12 billion. The 2012 request […]
The Obama Administration’s proposed 2013 budget includes funding to hire 92 additional Wage and Hour Division investigators. The budget would allocate $6.4 million to hire investigators to enforce the Fair Labor Standards Act and the Family and Medical Leave Act, said Nancy Leppink, acting WHD administrator during a webchat on Monday. The funding would allow […]
Here’s one positive pattern in COBRA coverage lawsuits: Even if a plan administrator violated the COBRA law, if it acts reasonably under the circumstances, courts are inclined to mitigate the amount of any penalties. But even though the law is more than 25 years old, case law shows there’s still a learning curve about its […]
The departments implementing health reform can turn around a project when they are under the gun. Responding to concerns that the new “summary of benefits and coverage” (SBC) mandated by the health reform law is redundant, HHS, DOL and Treasury/IRS quickly turned around a final rule that eases some SBC requirements. The final rule and […]