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Compensation & Benefits

What happens if we fail to provide COBRA notice upon termination?

12/24/2008

Q. What kinds of penalties or liability does an employer face if it fails to provide notice of COBRA coverage upon termination of an employee?

Winning unemployment case doesn’t let you off the hook for wrongful discharge

12/24/2008

Many employers carefully prepare for unemployment compensation hearings, especially if the employee was fired for misconduct. Then, having proven that the employee was fired for some wrongful act, they naively conclude that the same employee can’t turn around and sue them for wrongful discharge.

How can we protect ourselves? We’re worried aging employee will hurt himself

12/24/2008

Q. One of our employees is over age 70 and has recently had memory problems and a car wreck. What (if anything) can we do to protect ourselves from potential workers’ comp claims should he injure himself?

What are the risks of continuing a no-fault attendance policy?

12/24/2008

Q. Our company’s attendance policy calls for issuing a warning when an employee has three absences. Five absences result in a suspension, and seven absences result in termination. Can we continue this policy?

Generous about leave? Beware FMLA suit anyway

12/24/2008

What happens if an employer discourages an employee from taking FMLA leave and instead offers more than 12 weeks off with full pay? Can the employee still sue for interference with his right to FMLA leave if he isn’t reinstated to his prior position or an equivalent? The apparent answer is "yes."

Do we have to grant paid leave for time an employee will spend testifying in court?

12/24/2008

Q. An employee has been subpoenaed to appear as a witness in a criminal case. Are we required to pay him for that time, or can we have him take vacation time or an unpaid leave of absence?

Employers slashing ’09 salary budgets

12/24/2008

Remember those surveys last summer forecasting steady 3.6% salary increases for 2009? Forget about it. U.S. workers, on average, are now projected to receive annual merit increases of between 2.3% and 3.0% …

Retired NFL players’ blitz throws union for a big loss

12/24/2008

Usually, employers get zapped when employees sue, but that isn’t always so. Sometimes the union that represents employees gets slapped with a huge penalty, too—especially if it neglected to look out for workers’ interests.

N.J.’s pension strategy: ‘Promise to pay up later, OK?’

12/24/2008

Tough times call for tough measures. To cope with the effects of the state’s $1.2 billion budget shortfall on its pension obligations, Gov. Jon Corzine has suggested a time-honored, if not terribly innovative, remedy: an IOU.

Trenton power broker convicted of bribery and pension fraud

12/24/2008

Former state Sen. Wayne Bryant, once one of New Jersey’s most powerful politicians, was convicted of bribery and pension fraud for taking state jobs for which he did no work and steering state business to cronies in return.