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Compensation & Benefits

Mount Carmel Health to cut jobs, programs

03/06/2009

Columbus-based Mount Carmel Health will cut 300 jobs and several outpatient services to cope with reduced revenue. Among the service casualties are the system’s smoking cessation program including its help-line, its senior outpatient lung rehabilitation and outpatient nutrition counseling services.

Employer loses WC claim when it fails to call witness

03/06/2009

Linda Pounds, a resident assistant at Whetstone Gardens & Care Center, injured her back while changing a patient’s bed linens. Once she filed a workers’ comp claim, that’s about the only thing Pounds and the center agreed on …

What are the COBRA rules applying to small businesses in Ohio?

03/06/2009

Q. We are a small business, with only 12 full-time employees and a smattering of on-again, off-again part-timers. When an employee leaves, do we have to provide a COBRA notice?

Can I ask my employees to use accrued leave to cover time spent on jury duty?

03/06/2009

Q. An employee just asked for a week off to attend jury duty. Do I have to grant the request for leave? If I do, can I require the employee to use accrued vacation time during the jury duty leave?

Study cites New York as a hotbed of wage-and-hour claims

03/06/2009

A recent report offers some ominous news for New York employers. New York is one of eight states that saw an increase in class-action wage-and-hour cases filed in state court last year, according to the Seyfarth Shaw law firm’s new Workplace Class Action Litigation Report.

It’s up to you to establish exempt status

03/06/2009

To avoid paying overtime and keeping track of every minute employees spend on the job, many employers reflexively classify employees as exempt rather than hourly employees. But many employers get it wrong—and that can be costly.

Keep hiring documents to guard against discrimination claims

03/06/2009

Now that Congress has enacted the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, it is more important than ever for employers to keep applications and other supporting documents as proof that they set wages fairly and without regard to gender.

Handling Unemployment Claims the Legal Way

03/04/2009
Under the Federal Unemployment Tax Act (FUTA) and state laws, employers are obligated to pay payroll taxes to provide unemployment compensation to employees who lose their jobs. FUTA sets the federal tax rate, while the state tax rate varies by state. By understanding how the system works, you may be able to cut your state […]

14 Texas employers make Fortune ‘best’ list

03/03/2009

Fourteen companies based in Texas have made Fortune magazine’s 2009 “100 Best Companies to Work For” list. Five Dallas/Fort Worth area firms made the list …

HR and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009

03/03/2009

Tucked into the massive American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 are several provisions affecting HR. But because most require federal agencies to write new implementation rules, predicting how they will play out day-to-day will be like trying to hit a moving target. Bookmark this page to stay up to date on compliance guidance as the government releases it.