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Compensation & Benefits

FMLA: It’s not your job to decide whether relative needs your employee’s help

03/05/2012
The FMLA provides leave for employees who need to care for seriously ill family members. Some employers argue that if several family members are providing care, they don’t have to approve FMLA leave if that means more than one family member would be present. That argument won’t fly.

Form W-2c: the agony of errors

03/02/2012
The earlier employers fix errors on 2011 W-2s, the less likely it is they’ll be penalized by the IRS. E-filers have until the April 2 to file original W-2s, but even those few extra weeks may not be enough to get off the W-2c hook for mistakes that come to your attention after e-filing.

Spring forward! Daylight saving time begins March 11

03/01/2012
Daylight saving time begins at 2 a.m., March 11. Graveyard-shift workers, therefore, will work only seven hours that day. If you pay those employees for a standard eight-hour shift, don’t include the extra hour’s pay when calculating their regular rates to determine overtime.

Workers’ comp: Facebook ‘evidence’ can be used

02/28/2012
When an Arkansas employee tried to get workers’ comp benefits due to a back injury, the administrative law judge found there was no medical evidence to support the claim. One strike against the worker: photos on Facebook that seemed to show him moving fine while drinking and partying.

Former employees to collect overdue profit-sharing funds

02/27/2012
Mentor-based North Coast Wood Products has settled a Department of Labor lawsuit alleging the company’s owner illegally diverted money from 11 participants in the now-defunct company’s profit-­sharing plan.

Remind bosses: Ignoring safety rules is negligence risk

02/24/2012
Ordinarily, employers aren’t liable for workers’ injuries. Workers’ compensation insurance covers them. But if managers ignore safety guidelines that they know could prevent injuries, the employee can sue.

PwC enhances effort to hang on to top staff

02/24/2012
To enhance its approach to compensation and development, PwC has added several programs to demonstrate the long-term value of building a career at the professional services firm formerly known as PricewaterhouseCoopers.

What should we do? If employee took all her comp time, she couldn’t do her job

02/22/2012
Q. We have an exempt supervisor who has accumulated more than 400 hours of comp time over the past year. It’s almost impossible for her to take 400 hours of comp time and still do her job. What is our obligation to pay for this comp time? How can this issue best be resolved?

For new mom with very ill baby, what are our FMLA and unemployment obligations?

02/22/2012
Q. A long-standing employee recently took FMLA leave to give birth, but her son has many medical complications. She exhausted her eligibility under our disability carrier and isn’t eligible for long-term disability because she herself is not disabled. We want her back, but she can’t commit to even 20 hours a week. What are our obligations under the FMLA, and would our employee be entitled to unemployment compensation if we terminate her?

Beware too much control over contractor! You could be liable for unemployment comp

02/22/2012

You may think that a long-term arrangement with an independent contractor to provide professional services will never be considered an employment relationship. But that’s not true if you exert too much control over the way the work is done. And according to a recent Commonwealth Court decision, it doesn’t take all that much control.