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Compensation & Benefits

Making spirits bright: 10 holiday perks to ease employee stress

12/04/2007

The holiday season can be an exceptionally stressful and busy time for your employees. And of course, frazzled, frantic and depressed doesn’t equal high productivity. Try these timesaving, stress-relieving perks to ease employees’ minds and their calendars—and improve retention.

Can we dock sick time for exempt employees?

12/01/2007
Q. Will I risk losing an employee’s exempt status if I deduct from his or her wages for full-day absences of one or more days?

Meanwhile, back at the state, employees seem well fed

12/01/2007

Nobody’s accusing the state of Pennsylvania—where “Bonusgate” charges have been swirling—of underpaying its workers. Trying to hold onto his party’s slim majority in the Statehouse, Democratic Majority Floor Leader Bill DeWeese instituted new ethics policies in the wake of a grand jury probe …

Verizon moves toward pay transparency—in due time

12/01/2007

Verizon has announced that shareholders annually will get to approve or reject the company’s pay plans—starting in 2009. At the company’s annual meeting in May, more than half of the shareholders voted in favor of a “say on pay” proposal fronted by The Association of BellTel Retirees …

Paying commission? Get written agreement

12/01/2007

If your organization pays some employees on a commission basis, it may be a good idea to put it in writing. Relying on just an oral agreement may lead to trouble down the road—especially if the employee quits and says you owe him money. Without a written agreement spelling out the commission terms, a lawsuit probably will come down to his word against yours …

Collective bargaining terms mean no unemployment comp for pregnant employees

12/01/2007

Employees who must stop working at a certain point in their pregnancies because a union agreement compels the leave are not entitled to unemployment compensation in Ohio. That’s true even if the pregnant employee could physically work and would have done so if it were an option …

AK Steel uses VEBA to settle retiree health care lawsuit

12/01/2007

AK Steel settled a lawsuit with a group of retirees from its Middletown Works by transferring their health care coverage to a voluntary employees’ beneficiary association (VEBA) trust. The 4,600 retirees sued in 2006 after the company moved to cut retiree health care costs to improve its competitiveness …

Ohio Supreme Court limits ‘Voluntary abandonment’ doctrine

12/01/2007

The Ohio Supreme Court has substantially limited the “voluntary abandonment” doctrine in claims for temporary total disability compensation under the Ohio Workers’ Compensation Act. That means employers may have to pay temporary total disability payments to employees even if they were injured while breaking safety rules …

Health insurance costs up less than usual in ’07

12/01/2007

Employees will pay $150 more for medical expenses next year, predicts a new Towers Perrin survey. And that means your employees probably are more worried about the increasing costs of their health insurance than they are about being able to pay their rent, losing their jobs or becoming victims of violent crime, notes a separate survey by the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation …

Hot dog! Chipotle employees can bring their pets to work

12/01/2007

Ann Dowell’s two Yorkshire terriers are not just her pets; they are co-workers—sort of. Dowell, the executive HR director at Chipotle’s Denver headquarters, may bring her dogs to work as long as “they are well-behaved,” she says. The company has allowed dogs in the office since 1996 …