Tag: incentives
Bulletin Item: Workers’ Compensation Reform Bill Signed
With Gov. Schwarzenegger poised to deliver enough voter signatures to place workers’ compensation reform on the November ballot, the Legislature reached a compromise with the governor and passed its own workers’ comp reform legislation—which the governor has now signed into law. The measure (SB 899) is expected to save employers several billion dollars a year […]
Health and Safety: Employee Obesity Can Create Risks in the Workplace; Low-Cost Approaches to Tip the Scales in Your Favor
No doubt you’ve heard that Americans are getting heavier. The Surgeon General reports that in 1999, 61 percent of adults in the United States were overweight, twice as many as in 1980. And as of 2001, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), nearly a quarter of all Californians were obese. These numbers—and the […]
Legislation Special Report: Empoyee Complaints And Lawsuits
Employee Enforcement of Labor Code Under SB 796, which has been dubbed the “bounty-hunter law,” employees may file private lawsuits against their employers, on behalf of themselves and other employees, for labor code violations when the responsible state agency doesn’t pursue the violations. The law provides employees with various financial incentives to file suit, as […]
News Notes: Chevron Employees Duped Into Retiring Early Entitled To Back Pay
A federal court in San Francisco has ruled that a group of Chevron employees who retired just before the company announced a lucrative early retirement buyout package are entitled to recover the additional money they would have received had they delayed retirement until after the new incentives were unveiled. The court found that Chevron actively […]
News Notes: Federal Court Defines Duty To Notify Employees About Proposed Benefit Plan Changes
We reported in April on a federal court decision from Kentucky involving IBM which held that under federal law, if you’re seriously considering changes to a retirement benefit plan, you must tell your employees. Now, in a pair of new cases, the federal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal has reached the same conclusion, explaining that […]
Terminating Employees: New Legislation Protects Higher-Paid Older Workers; How To Cut Costs Without Breaking The Law
In a controversial ruling two years ago, a California Court of Appeal ruled that you could discharge high-earning employees over age 40 and replace them with lower-paid workers if your motivation was simply to save money. Labor organizations have sought to overturn the decision ever since, and now Governor Davis has signed legislation that does […]
News Notes: Clinton Makes Push For Workplace Child Care
President Clinton’s sweeping $21.7 billion child care initiative includes $500 million in tax incentives to encourage employers to provide more employer-sponsored child care. Under the plan, which is still subject to Congressional approval, employers would get a 25% tax credit for building or expanding child care facilities. Several other bills are pending in Congress which […]