Employment Archives - Page 31 of 104 - EMPLOYEE BENEFITS BLOG

How Healthcare Employers Can Comply With OSHA’s Rules on Workplace Violence

by Abigail M. Kagan | Oct 24, 2019 | Employment, Labor

OSHA’s general duty clause now applies to workplace violence in healthcare Sec. of Labor v. Integra Health Mgmt., Inc., OSHRC Docket No. 13-1124 (March 2019), requiring healthcare employers to maintain workplaces “free from recognized hazards that are causing or likely to cause death or serious physical harm.”

Abigail M. Kagan authored a primer for healthcare employers on the clause. In an article originally published on Bloomberg Law, she discusses:

The four criteria OSHA considers in determining whether a general duty violation has occurred
Engineering controls and administrative controls healthcare employers should take to protect workplaces
A checklist healthcare employers can utilize to begin protecting employees

Access the full article.

The Global Repercussions of Local Employment Risks

by Michael J. Sheehan | Oct 10, 2019 | Employment, Labor

While campaigning for President in 1932, Franklin Roosevelt promised a crowd in Pittsburgh that he’d balance the federal budget while cutting “government operations” by 25 per cent. When he returned to Pittsburgh during his 1936 campaign, Roosevelt asked his staff how to answer questions about that unfulﬁlled promise and was told “deny you were ever in Pittsburgh.”

So much has changed since then: what is said and done is now instantly visible. This lesson came earlier to politicians, it is now unavoidable for business entities. There is no option to deny that you were there.

Let’s look at some consequences of this global visibility:

El Super, a small California-based grocery chain with approximately 600 unionized workers, failed to resolve a routine labor dispute at one store with the union representing those employees. As a result of this dispute involving just one store, El Super’s Mexican parent company, Chedraui Commercial Group, found itself subject to double barrel complaints ﬁled by US and Mexican labor unions under the North American Free Trade Agreement labor agreement and Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development guidelines.
Vedanta found itself subject to a lawsuit by individuals living more than 5,000 miles away when an appellate court in the United Kingdom held that farmers from a Zambian village could bring a claim against Vedanta and its Zambian subsidiary (Lungowe and Ors. v Vedanta Resources PLC and Konkola Copper Mines PLC [November 2017] EWCA Civ 1528). The court’s decision expanded the potential “duty of care” that parent companies have under UK law to employees of their subsidiaries, to include even non-employees who might be affected by its subsidiaries’ operation.

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Global Employment Contracts: The Modern Tower of Babel

by Ludovic Bergès and Yesenia M. Gallegos | Oct 3, 2019 | Employment

Although multi-jurisdictional compliance is a challenge in relation to every aspect of employment law, the structure of employment contracts and the enforcement of global policies require particularly careful consideration.

The need to coordinate individual country compliance across numerous countries whilst still maintaining a common company culture requires extensive knowledge of national laws and considerable ﬂexibility.

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A New Landscape for Businesses with California Operations, Thanks to A.B. 5

by Marjorie C. Soto Garcia and Yesenia M. Gallegos | Sep 26, 2019 | Employment

This month, Assembly Bill 5 (A.B. 5) was signed into California law. A.B. 5 codifies the “ABC Test”—used to determine if a worker is an independent contractor—which is broader, harsher and more inclusive than the common law test with which most businesses are familiar.

A.B. 5 appears to be the death knell of convenience for retaining contractors in the Golden State, as well as the advent of a new wave of wage and hour litigation.

Access the full article.

Employment, Benefits and Compensation Forum: Control Your Own Headlines

by McDermott Will & Emery | Sep 24, 2019 | Employee Benefits, Employment, Health and Welfare Plans, Labor, Retirement Plans

In today’s high-stakes environment, in-house counsel and HR professionals are often on the frontlines, responding to headlines that threaten business and reputational objectives.

Join McDermott Will & Emery’s Employment and Employee Benefits practice groups at a half-day forum in our Chicago office on Oct. 10. This forward-looking program is designed to drive conversation around emerging trends to help employers craft their own narrative, instead of being held captive by it.

See full event details and register here.

Transgender Health Benefits: Best Practices and Legal Considerations

by Erin Steele, Jacob Mattinson and Todd Solomon | Sep 3, 2019 | Employee Benefits, Employment, Health and Welfare Plans

A growing number of medical organizations, courts and administrative bodies have stated that transition-related medical care is medically necessary and should be covered by employer-sponsored medical plans. Access to employer-sponsored healthcare coverage for transgender workers has become an issue of focus for civil rights advocacy groups such as Lambda Legal and the American Civil Liberties Union, and there has been an uptick in discrimination lawsuits filed against health plans and insurers denying such care.

These trends highlight the importance of weighing the legal and business considerations that come with providing (or not providing) comprehensive health benefits for transgender workers. Health plan sponsors and insurers should consider how the decision to provide or exclude transition-related medical coverage will affect their legal compliance, overall costs and workplace culture—all of which are discussed in this article.

Access the full article.

Originally published in Benefits Magazine, August 2019.

7 Severance Structuring Tips for Tax-Exempt Colleges and Universities

by Erin Steele, Joseph K. Urwitz and Todd Solomon | Aug 20, 2019 | Employee Benefits, Employment, Executive Compensation

In-house counsel and human resources professionals at tax-exempt colleges and universities often face a variety of challenges when structuring, and determining obligations due under, severance arrangements. There are some key considerations to bear in mind, which are outlined in this article.

Access the full article.

Capital Perspective: An Analysis of Hot Topics in Benefits and Compensation

by Andrew Liazos, Evan A. Belosa and Jeffrey Holdvogt | Aug 8, 2019 | Employee Benefits, Employment, Executive Compensation, Health and Welfare Plans, Retirement Plans

With the uncertainty of the general election just one year away—and change on the horizon—now is the time to take stock of the legal and regulatory environment to prepare your organization for the future.

On September 10 in Boston, the ERISA Industry Committee (ERIC), Fidelity and McDermott invite you to join your peers and colleagues for breakfast and an interactive discussion at 8 am EDT around hot topics in benefits and compensation. Areas of focus will include:

Congressional action on healthcare—from Rx costs to surprise billing
Direct contracting for health plans
Federal and state paid leave
Lasting impacts of tax reform
New leveraged ESPP funding alternative
Student loan repayment plans
The SECURE Act and what comes next

Register for the event.

3 Aspects of Executive Agreements that Need an Upgrade

by Zak Franklin | Jul 18, 2019 | Employee Benefits, Employment, Executive Compensation

Executives are no longer reluctant to lawyer up. News reports on executive/employer contretemps at Papa John’s, Barnes & Noble, Uber and other companies have drawn press attention in the past year; countless other executive/employer disputes have flown below radar.

Underlying these controversies is the executive’s employment agreement, typically the most high-stakes and closely negotiated employment agreements to which companies will contract. Yet, these agreements often contain less clarity and less certainty than either executives or their employers need. Indeed, there appear to be three areas where these contracts could and should be upgraded. Let’s look at each.

Access the full article.

Originally published by Law360, February 2019.

Buyers’ Immunity Under Employment Law Is a Myth

by Elvira Kras | Jul 17, 2019 | Employment

There are three focal points in every successorship case: (1) notice to the purchaser; (2) continuity of the business; and (3) the ability of the seller to provide relief.

Reading the tripartite test for successor liability, it is enticing to conclude that a deal is safe. This is what the Greeks called hubris. Remember Oedipus, who also thought he could escape the prophecy of his fate? Even when it appears one of those factors ought to result in a buyer escaping successorship liability, any reading of those factors needs to be grounded in the case law because it sweeps more than a literal reading of those tripartite factors might suggest.

Even a quick look at the case law reveals the magnitude of the doctrine’s scope.

Access the full article.

Originally published by Law360, July 2019.