Day: November 3, 2011

Importance of Documentation in Employment Disputes

by Gary S. Fealk Discipline and termination are issues for virtually all employers. However, many employers make employment decisions with incomplete knowledge of the events leading to the discipline or termination. Having a system for investigating and documenting workplace incidents helps employers make decisions with better knowledge of the facts. Proper documentation also reduces the […]

SEC Acts to Clarify Conflict with DOL’s Fee Disclosure Rules over … Chart Format!

Concerns about the implementation of participant fee disclosure rules did not just rest within the retirement plan community – the Department of Labor (DOL) itself raised red flags about how the rules would interact with a formatting requirement under Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) rules. But we recently got word from DOL that the SEC […]

Health Insurance—What Are Best Employers Doing to Control Costs?

Health insurance costs. We’ll wager that every employer—and every employee—is concerned. So how are companies coping? Let’s ferret out best practices; what’s working in the real world? For years, BLR has surveyed HR and benefits professionals to find trends in benefits. We appreciate your participation in our monthly series of brief, targeted benefits surveys. Today’s […]

All Quiet on the Transparency Front: Fees Still a Mystery and Hospital Quality Data Spotty

Have you asked your doctor or dentist to see his fee schedule? When I did so once, a dentist refused, saying in effect: “my prices are higher, but that’s what you need to get my quality advantage.” What’s a consumer to do? A similar relation exists between large employers and institutional providers (hospitals.) The lack […]

Paid Leave Rejected by Denver Voters

Employers in Denver need not worry about adding paid sick and “safe” time leave for everyone who works for them at least 40 hours a week – voters rejected the proposal by an almost two-to-one margin Denver’s Ballot Initiative 300 was defeated 66,719 votes (64 percent) to 37,498 (36 percent) Nov. 1. A broad coalition […]

OSHA Seeks Comments on Revised Whistleblower Rules

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is seeking comments on interim final rules that revise the regulations on whistleblower complaints filed under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX). The whistleblower protection provisions of SOX were amended by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 to clarify that subsidiaries of publicly […]

Employers Warned to Include GINA Disclosure on FMLA Forms (video)

Employers have some new language to include on certain Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) forms because of the Genetic Information Nondisclosure Act (GINA), according to employment law attorney Stacie L. Caraway, who led an FMLA session at the October Advanced Employment Issues Symposium in Nashville, Tennessee. Caraway says a one-paragraph statement is available on […]

Still More Employment Policy Perils

Yesterday, we looked at 5 potential employment policy perils you want to be sure to avoid. Today, the rest of the dastardly top 10 — plus a California-specific handbooks resource that practically does the work for you.