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Postcards are designed to provide a brief message, but it will be interesting to learn if such brevity is sufficient to adequately notify an individual of COBRA continuation coverage rights — particularly when the law identifies at least 14 content requirements for COBRA election notices. In a recent court case, an employer/plan administrator faced with […]
A recent court case highlights two crucial issues in administering COBRA continuation coverage: (1) a plan administrator has the sole legal obligation to prove compliance with COBRA’s notice rules — it cannot pass the buck to third-party administrators; and (2) lack of sufficient evidence on COBRA notice procedures can be a costly mistake. Recently, an […]
To fill in the knowledge gaps on how many individuals enrolled in the COBRA premium subsidy program — data that will be helpful in determining the program’s cost-effectiveness, who best benefited from the subsidy and how to target similar programs — the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) plans to sponsor a study sometime in 2012. […]
Employers have different ways of administering COBRA continuation coverage, as evident in a recent news article about a local candidate’s problem when he was found to owe a city government money after it paid some of his COBRA premiums. The Post-Standard reported Oct. 27 how Timothy Lattimore (R), former mayor of Auburn, N.Y. , elected […]
A recent appeals court ruling shows that clear and consistent documentation of an employee’s poor performance is more important than certain imprudent things a supervisor may say to an employee. Robert Dickerson, an individual with a mental disability, worked as a part-time custodian for an Illinois community college. He was recorded several times losing employer property and […]
Facebook’s not the place to make grossly disparaging remarks about your employer — that should not be a new concept to most employees. And while employers should be careful about overly restrictive policies, there is a line beyond which employees can be fired. In this case, a Chicago area car salesman’s posts about cheap food his employer […]
The Family and Medical Leave Act requires that employees taking unpaid time off to care for a relative must stay close to that person during most of that leave, the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals said in deciding Baham v. McLane Foodservice, Inc. While an employee need not spend every waking moment in the […]
Employers should not fire workers in response to them taking valid FMLA leave. But firing can be justified when employees use FMLA leave (1) in a way that violates the employer’s policy manual, (2) to cover up for underperformance, (3) to retaliate against their employers or (4) as carte blanche to miss endless hours of […]
The decision in Quinn v. St. Louis Co. illuminates a fine line for employers. While eligible workers must be granted unpaid time off for qualifying serious health conditions under the FMLA, the court showed that interference must have material consequences – such as actual denial of time off – for employees to make a convincing […]
Although the COBRA statute never defined gross misconduct — leaving it up to the courts — no dictionary is needed when an “out-of-control” employee screams profanities at and makes seemingly threatening hand gestures toward another employee, saying she would “get” hers. This behavior was “so manifestly so outrageous and extreme as to constitute gross misconduct,” […]