• The HR Specialist - Print Newsletter
  • HR Specialist: Employment Law
  • The HR Weekly

Compensation & Benefits

It’s OK to Offer Incentive to Drop Health Coverage

03/01/2003

Q. Due to rising premiums, our company is looking into alternatives to reduce our group health benefit costs. Several employees are on our plan and their spouses’ plan. They are willing to go off our group plan if we compensate them “x” amount of dollars each month. Is it legal to offer the medical insurance benefit or a cash alternative? —S.P., Michigan

Safeguard your health data: HIPAA rules kick in April 14

03/01/2003
Reminder: If your company sponsors an employee benefit plan, it likely has to comply with new privacy standards under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act’s …

Simple pain complaint doesn’t count as FMLA notice.

03/01/2003
A worker who previously fractured his coccyx told his boss he was “in pain from his tailbone” and needed to go to the doctor that day. Although the boss told him …

Fast fix to FLSA error can save you, but ‘correction window’ closes fast

03/01/2003
If you screw up on a Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) pay issue, don’t count on the “window of corrections” to save you. Sure, this Labor Department rule allows you to …

Focus on tangible perks to retain best workers

02/01/2003
Are HR professionals in tune with their employees’ wants and needs? Not exactly, suggests a survey of more than 1,000 employees and HR professionals by USA Today …

Offset bonus pay against weekly overtime with care

02/01/2003
Fabri-Centers gave workers several bonus payments above their base pay, including shift differentials, holiday pay and spot bonuses. But the company calculated employees’…

Employee Can’t Claim COBRA if Not Enrolled in Plan

02/01/2003

Q. We offer insurance benefits that begin six months after hire. Due to changing business conditions, we had to terminate an employee after only 10 months on the job. But the worker wasn’t signed up for the health plan on his termination date. Does he now have any claim to COBRA? —M.R., South Carolina

‘Possibility’ of serious illness wins coverage

02/01/2003
The rule has been drummed into your brain: An employee can take job-protected leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) if he suffers from a …

Offer accommodation, but don’t mandate extra leave

02/01/2003

Q. We’re afraid that a previously injured worker returned from medical leave too early. Can we require him to take additional leave if it’s obvious that the injury is still hurting his job performance? —M.D., Wyoming

Hiring managers? You have more salary bargaining power

02/01/2003
Reason: Managers and professionals now make up 48 percent of those who fall in the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ class of “chronically unemployed,” those who were jobless …