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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 […]
Federal contractors have an additional two weeks — until Feb. 21 — to respond to the Labor Department’s proposal establishing goals for hiring workers with disabilities. In December, Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs released proposed regulations that would require federal contractors to aim to have 7 percent of their workforce be individuals with […]
Basically, you must reemploy a service member returning from military duty if he or she meets five criteria: The employee must have held a civilian job He or she must have given you proper notice of the impending military service, unless notice was unreasonable or impossible The cumulative period of service must not have exceeded […]
The Labor Department, in response to strong opposition from farm families, is revising its proposed rule restricting child labor on farms. As part of a package of child labor reforms unveiled Sept. 2, 2011, Labor proposed narrowing the so-called parental exemption that allows children of any age who are employed by their parent, or a […]
What do short stories by O. Henry and independent contractor analysis have in common? You’re left guessing the outcome until the very end, says attorney Deanna Brinkerhoff. The federal Department of Labor (DOL) is cracking down on classification, and that makes now an excellent time to evaluate your organization’s classification decisions.