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Compensation & Benefits

USERRA and the choice of paying or not paying for health insurance

04/10/2008
Q. It has been our company’s policy to maintain health insurance coverage for the families of employees who are serving in Iraq. It has recently come to our attention that one such family includes a spouse who is working, and the spouse has declined health insurance coverage at her job because we have been providing it free of charge. I have been asked whether we have an ongoing obligation to provide for this family’s health insurance coverage while our employee is on leave to serve in the military …

Is there such a thing as intermittent childbirth leave?

04/10/2008
 Q. We have a question regarding FMLA leave following the birth of a child. One of our employees is pregnant. She has recently immigrated to the United States. She has informed us that she expects to take eight weeks of FMLA leave immediately after the child is born. Then after a few months, she would like to return to her home country to visit with family for a month. In other words, she wants to split up FMLA leave into an eight-week period and a four-week period. Can FMLA leave for a new child be split up in this fashion? …

Resist the temptation to misclassify employees as contractors

04/09/2008
You’re writing your unemployment insurance checks, paying workers’ compensation premiums and remitting payroll taxes to the government when a bright idea occurs to you: If only your employees were independent contractors, you wouldn’t have all these expenses. The Illinois General Assembly understood the appeal of that daydream—and took action to slap you back to reality …

Consistently applied blanket-Leave limits don’t violate FMLA

04/09/2008
If you’re having absenteeism problems, consider instituting a policy that says an employee who exceeds an absence threshold will be automatically terminated—regardless of the reason. Such a policy can cover absences relating to personal or vacation leave, time off covered by workers’ comp and even FMLA leave …

Beware cancellation of Assigned Risk Plan workers’ comp

04/08/2008
Employers that can’t get workers’ compensation insurance in the private insurance market can get coverage through the Minnesota Workers’ Compensation Assigned Risk Plan (MWCARP). To get the coverage, an employer typically pays a small estimated premium …

Discharged for moonlighting? Former employee may not be eligible for unemployment

04/08/2008
If you discharge an employee who has been moonlighting, and he or she continues to work on the side, the moonlighting income may make the former employee ineligible for unemployment compensation …

No joke: Al Franken agrees to pay workers’ comp fine

04/08/2008
Democratic Senate candidate Al Franken has agreed to pay a $25,000 fine to the state of New York for failing to carry workers’ compensation for almost three years. The fine was levied in August 2006 after a web site supporting incumbent Republican Sen. Norm Coleman reported that Franken had not paid the insurance on his personal corporation …

Charging employees for uniforms

04/08/2008
Q. We would like to require employees to pay for their work uniforms. Can we do this? …

Exempt employees and a reduced workweek

04/08/2008
Q. During our slow season, we would like to require employees to work just four days per week in order save on labor costs. Can we require exempt employees to participate? …

Texas state unemployment tax to be partially suspended

04/07/2008
Gov. Rick Perry announced on March 10 that the state’s unemployment insurance replenishment tax will be suspended for one year. As a result of the suspension, about 370,000 affected businesses should see a tax savings of approximately $90 million …