Employment

With so much attention being paid to compliance with the Affordable Care Act’s Employer Shared Responsibility rules, it is sometimes easy to forget that these are not the only rules that govern the maintenance and operation of employer-sponsored group health plans. In the case of mid-year cafeteria plan elections, however, the Act and prior law do not mesh well.

The advent of a playoff system in Division I FBS college football is not the only new change in intercollegiate athletics. After the most active summer in the history of college sports, the following events will have a large effect on compliance going forward

“I told my wife I wouldn't drink tonight. Besides, I got a big day tomorrow. . . . Well, um, actually a pretty nice little Saturday, we're going to go to Home Depot. Yeah, buy some wallpaper; maybe get some flooring, stuff like that. Maybe Bed, Bath & Beyond, I don't know, I don't know if we'll have enough time.”

Following up on the piece I wrote with Jim Ninivaggi, “Whose LinkedIn Profile is it Anyway,” the information contained in an employee’s LinkedIn contacts were discussed in the context of trade secrets in a recent California Federal District Court case, Cellular Accessories for Less, Inc. v. Trinitas.

Recently I had a conversation with my father about his options for parental leave when I was born (1979). As a new father myself, I was curious what leave options were open to baby-boomer Dads. My father told me that it was fairly standard to take a day or two off after the birth of a child and to then return to the office, with cigars and tired eyes.

This summer, those (31?) of us who watched Chris Pratt steal scene after scene in Parks & Recreation saw him ripen into the star we always hoped he’d become. First he charmed audiences as the voice of Emmett in the Lego Movie (you know, the one that easily broke the record for most references that went over your kid’s head in a G-rated movie).

The District of Columbia is on the verge of joining the 13 other states (and numerous cities and counties throughout the country) that have enacted “Ban the Box” laws prohibiting or limiting an employer from asking job applicant’s about their criminal record.

While it seems like it happened forever ago, it was just back in July when LeBron James once again held this nation captive over where he would play basketball. Four years ago, he jumped ship to Miami to join forces with Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh, which led to two championships and four straight finals appearances.

The collective sobbing you may have recently heard from the west coast of the United States was that of California employers in response to Governor Jerry Brown’s September 10, 2014 signing of AB 1522 – California’s new paid sick leave law called the Healthy Workplaces, Healthy Families Act of 2014.

A recent Washington Post article (“Glitch in health care law allows employers to offer substandard insurance,” September 12, 2014) highlights an Affordable Care Act compliance strategy being marketed heavily (and adopted widely) in industries that traditionally did not previously offer coverage to large cohorts of variable hour and contingent workers.

$113.6 million and counting – that’s the total amount donated to the ALS Association since July 29 as a result of the Ice Bucket Challenge. Just to put that fundraising number into perspective, the Association raised around $3 million in the same period last year – a staggering 3,500%+ increase.

With Labor Day quickly fading into the distance (tear), we thought it would be a good time to recap some of the employment law (and pop culture) headlines that captured our attention this summer. Follow us over the next 11 days as we examine the challenges that employers faced while many of us were out baking in the sun.

Those are the opening lyrics to Nico & Vinz’s (catchy would be an understatement) summertime hit “Am I wrong.” The music stations play it so often that my car radio now just automatically turns off in protest.

Please join us on October 8th, 2014 at 1:00 p.m. for a webinar where we’ll discuss the latest trends in wage and hour compliance matters affecting auto dealerships and how you can develop and implement effective strategies for minimizing exposure to FLSA and state wage and hour claims.

My colleague Bridgette Wiley in the Health Law practice authored a blog post entitled Government Issues New Rules for Religious Employers, But Health Plans, TPAs, And PBMs Are Still On The Hook To Provide Contraceptive Coverage in which she describes new rules that have been established for eligible organizations to take advantage

I was quoted in this timely article by Law360 about fantasy football in the workplace.  Conclusion: it's a workplace reality that's going nowhere, and therefore, employers should address its presence, and do so in a way that meets their business goals, comports with their culture and reduces their exposure.

Whether an employer makes the requisite offer of group health plan coverage is critical to the application of the Affordable Care Act’s employer shared responsibility rules as reflected in final implementing regulations issued earlier this year (and see here for a useful IRS summary of those rules).

Following up on our Week 22 ACA Countdown to Compliance post, yesterday, the D.C. Court of Appeals granted the government’s petition for en banc review in Halbig v. Burwell, which held low income subsidies to purchase coverage through public insurance exchanges established by the Affordable Care Act were unavailable to residents of states

In the past few years the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”) has taken an increased interest in whether workplace policies prohibiting employees from discussing the terms and conditions of their employment on social media such as Facebook and Twitter violate the National Labor Relations Act (“NLRA”) by interfering with workers’ rights to engage in concerted activity.

With two seemingly simple and straightforward definitions in the final regulations implementing the Affordable Care Act’s pay-or-play rules—i.e., definitions of “employer” and “employee”— the Treasury Department and IRS have raised a host of concerns for third party staffing arrangements.