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Compensation & Benefits

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 …

Despite rising health care costs, Oregon offers full benefits

12/01/2007

With health care costs on the rise, most state governments are cutting back on their share of employees’ health insurance premiums. Oregon is not one of them. State employees and their families still receive fully paid health insurance …

Better health plan is key to employee satisfaction

12/01/2007

The key to employee satisfaction at your organization could be a beefed-up health plan. Employees responding to a Kronos survey said exceptional health care coverage was the benefit they wanted most …

By the Numbers: A look at health care cost containment

12/01/2007

Wellness programs and consumer-directed health plans will become twice as common over the next five years. Here’s how the numbers shake out on employer strategies for reining in health care costs …

Heart attack at work? Be prepared to prove stress wasn’t the cause

12/01/2007

The New York workers’ compensation system was set up as a no-fault system to compensate employees injured while working. There’s a powerful presumption under the system that any death that occurs during working hours is covered, at least if there’s an arguable claim that it was work-related. That’s why employees who have fatal heart attacks at work may sometimes be covered …

Applying for Special Disability Fund? Make sure you fill out forms correctly

12/01/2007

Employers and workers’ compensation carriers can sometimes be partially reimbursed for workers’ comp payments if prior injuries contributed to an employee’s inability to work. But applying to the Special Disability Fund requires careful completion of the application forms—the agency that handles such requests is often a stickler for details, and courts usually uphold the agency’s decisions …

With health trust fund, UAW-Chrysler contract echoes GM

12/01/2007

The contract reached in October by the United Auto Workers (UAW) and Chrysler closely resembled the UAW’s earlier agreement with General Motors, cutting wages for new workers and moving health care into a union-run health plan in exchange for job guarantees and bonuses …

Can an employee who quits receive unemployment compensation?

12/01/2007

Q. We told an employee we probably would be replacing him within the next month. He quit and filed for unemployment. Under what circumstances do we have to pay unemployment? …

Pharmacists may follow conscience on dispensing Plan B

12/01/2007

Pharmacists who oppose abortion and object to dispensing Plan B emergency contraception will not have to do so as a result of a binding agreement reached with the state in October …