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Compensation & Benefits

How should we pay for weekend travel time?

08/27/2008
Q. How do we pay hourly employees who are traveling on a day that’s not considered a workday, like Saturday or Sunday? What if they normally have a 10-minute commute to the office but instead they have to go to the airport, and the airport is an hour from their homes? …

Factor Lower Health Care Cost Growth into 2009 Budgets

08/26/2008
Health care costs are expected to increase on average 10.6% in the next 12 months, the lowest percentage increase since 2001. Here are the stats you need to make smart business decisions about the health plan  you choose for your employees.

Sorry, no take-Backs on FMLA

08/26/2008
In July 2001, Steven Peters joined Gilead Sciences, a California-based pharmaceutical company, as a therapeutic specialist. In December 2002, Peters took leave under the FMLA for surgery. He took a second leave in March 2003. On April 25, the company sent a letter to Peters, saying that because he held a “key” position the company could not keep open, he had been replaced …

Indiana employers respond to higher gas prices

08/26/2008
The LaPorte District of Indiana’s Department of Transportation (INDOT) has instituted a four-day workweek for operations workers to battle high fuel costs. INDOT hopes the move will bring 10% savings on fuel, utilities and fleet maintenance costs …

Gas pains: Implemented properly, telecommuting can be win-Win

08/26/2008
During this period of high gas prices, telecommuting could help employees cut commuting costs. With the right kind of phone and computer equipment, many workers can do their jobs as effectively from home as they can from their usual work sites. Employers benefit from increased productivity and lower absenteeism, higher retention rates and better employee morale …

Is it legal to discipline an employee for tardiness by suspending her without pay?

08/26/2008
Q. I work in HR at a customer call-in center. To make sure we have enough coverage to handle calls, we have a strict tardiness policy. Recently, one of our customer service agents was late for work several days in a row. She is an otherwise outstanding performer and we don’t want to fire her. In the alternative, we would like to suspend her for one week without pay. Is that legal? …

Beware the Overtime Trap that Even Tripped up the Army

08/26/2008
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) regulations say that certain kinds of "outside" salespeople are exempt from the FLSA’s overtime provisions. But to qualify as exempt, a salesperson must be the one who closes the sale. As  the following case shows—and as an Army recruiting contractor recently found out—that test can be a high hurdle.

Underpaying claims will cost health insurer $255 million

08/25/2008
The insurance firm Health Net will pay $255 million to settle three class-action lawsuits alleging it used a flawed database that sometimes under-reimbursed members’ insurance claims …

Transfer that call! Let benefits admin field pension queries

08/25/2008
Employees often rely on benefits information to make major life decisions—e.g., setting a retirement date or turning down a job offer—so it’s wise to let your benefits administrator field the questions rather handling them internally. Here’s why: Something as simple as making a mistake while calculating the employee’s years of service can lead to an ERISA lawsuit years later over retirement benefits …

Research, diligence, documentation key to making good-Faith FLSA classifications

08/25/2008
Under the FLSA, exempt employees don’t receive overtime pay. But figuring out just who fits in one of the exemptions is not an easy task. Get it wrong, and you could be liable for twice the overtime you should have paid, going back two years. Get it really wrong—by failing to act in good faith—and you’ll have to pay for an additional year. There’s a small silver lining behind that dark cloud …