Joe DeSantis

After a long night in front of the TV doing my part to make sure the Red Wings advanced to the conference semi-finals, and on top of sneezing fits due to allergies, I confess that calling in sick seemed a rather tempting option for me yesterday morning.  However, with the 2013 Compensation & Benefits Conference a little over a week away (you should go!) and prep work on that event still to be done, and not wanting to neglect you, the reader, there I was yesterday, as assigned, writing this article.

On May 8, the Department of Labor released a temporary “Model Notice to Employees of Coverage Options” about the soon-to-launch Healthcare Exchanges, as required under Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) Section 18B. It also released new guidance on COBRA elections under Obamacare. The Coverage Options Notice was originally targeted to be finalized and available for all employers by March 1, 2013, but for a variety of reasons was not.  The new target date is October 1, 2013.

He will . . . he won’t . . . now he will—employee must reimburse employer after winning a judgment in car accident: US Airways paid $66,866 in medical expenses for injuries suffered by plan participant McCutchen, who was involved in a car accident caused by a third party. US Airways’ plan entitled the company to reimbursement if the employee recovered money from a third party.

At ASE we have several barometers that give us a sense of the “weather” out there, i.e., the issues employers are facing at any given point in time. Two of the barometers are the research calls we take and the training classes our members attend.  As of late, we have taken a number of calls for classes on how to deal with difficult employees.

One of the most stressful aspects of HR and any other management discipline is terminating an employee. No normal human being wants to play the bad guy or be part of taking away someone’s ability to earn a living and/or support a family.

Last week several Detroit-area fast food restaurants were hit by a rolling demonstration by non-union fast food employees seeking higher wages. Certain McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Popeyes, Subway and Burger King retail stores reported employees calling in to take the day off and participate in demonstrations for an increase in fast food worker wages. By Saturday, an estimated 400 metro-Detroit workers participated in the walkout, part of the largest national demonstration by fast food workers in the U.S. to date.

If you are like most people with a retirement plan, you have probably watched with glee (and knocked on wood at the same time) as the stock market has steadily increased in recent months.  Market indices are now at or above the dismal days of the Great Recession, making some employees sigh with relief as their retirement accounts recover.  However, there is still great concern among employers about the readiness of their employees to retire.

NLRB slapped down again by D.C. Circuit: The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit on Monday invalidated the NLRB’s “poster rule,” which would require employers to hang posters informing employees of their right to organize and strike.  This case started with NLRB’s requirement for this poster in 2011. 

Many companies have casual days, generally Fridays. Casual Fridays are dress down days—a nice perk for employees that costs the employer little to nothing to implement. But how far “down” is it appropriate to dress on a casual Friday? Linda Baugh, president of American Career Executives in Scottsdale, Arizona says standards for setting a Casual Friday dress code vary. "It depends on the industry; if you're dressed very casually in front of clients, then they may not take you seriously as the provider of the service," Baugh says.

Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives, mindful of perception that their party has come to be perceived as anti-family and anti-worker, have resurrected a bill that they hope will win back voters who see the party that way and have turned against it in the voting booth.