Employment

Last week’s “polar vortex” brought record low temperatures to many parts of the country and shut down offices in numerous cities. Estimates suggest that the frigid weather could cost the U.S. economy up to $5 billion.

The FAQs generally address questions relating to what items and services can be excluded from the annual out-of-pocket maximum and how to determine the out-of-pocket maximum in 2014 and later years.

The Affordable Care Act imposes a series of interrelated requirements on individuals, employers and providers.  Individuals must maintain coverage or face the prospect of a tax penalty; carriers must offer and renew coverage.

Not gonna happen. That’s what the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts basically concluded about independent contractor arrangements in Massachusetts. In Anderson v. Home Delivery America, plaintiffs delivered Sears and K-Mart products for Home Delivery America (“HDA”).

“Many people look forward to the new year for a new start on old habits.” While the author to this famous New Year’s quote remains unknown, that certainly doesn’t make it any less true, including for employers.

The Affordable Care Act is a massive law that affects a large swath of the U.S. economy. Providers, payers, carriers, individuals, and, yes, employers, are affected, each in different, and in many cases overlapping, ways.

Recently, in a 6-3 vote, New Jersey’s Assembly Labor Committee advanced a bill (A-3837), known as the Opportunity to Compete Act, that would prohibit New Jersey employers with 15 or more employees from asking candidates about their criminal history on employment applications, and from conducting criminal background checks on applicants prior to a conditional job offer.

Plan sponsors of tax-qualified and other retirement arrangements can now submit corrections for qualification failures, both voluntary and on audit, through the IRS’s Employee Plans Compliance Resolution System.

Last month, we wrote about Young v. Fortis Plastics, where an Indiana District Court found that a private equity firm could be on the hook for the WARN Act liabilities of one of its portfolio companies under the “single employer” doctrine.

In Notice 2014-1, the IRS has provided additional guidance for cafeteria plans (including health and dependent care flexible spending accounts) and Health Savings Accounts on compliance with the changes to treatment of same-sex married couples following the Supreme Court’s Windsor decision.

As use of social media and other technologies continue to raise serious employment-related privacy issues in the workplace, expect to see a flurry of activity in 2014 from federal and state legislatures, administrative bodies, and courthouses throughout the country addressing those issues.

In today’s increasingly competitive world, employers understandably have a need to protect their business interests by requiring employees to enter into non-competition agreements that restrict their employees’ ability to engage in anti-competitive practices after their employment ends.

Like festive lights and bow-wrapped luxury cars, ‘tis the season for horror stories from company holiday parties. Office holiday parties are a cherished tradition and a nice way for companies to thank their employees for a job well done.

Before John Calipari, Rick Pitino and other presently successful college basketball coaches, there was the “Shark”. Jerry “Tark the Shark” Tarkanian held an impressive run as the Men’s Basketball Coach at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas (UNLV) in the 80s and early 90s.

The holiday shopping season is known for its long lines, steep sales and mall traffic jams, but it also prompts retailers and other businesses to hire a wave of temporary, seasonal employees to increase staffing levels during the busiest time of the year.

Once again we are reminded that covenants not to compete given in connection with the sale of a business are an entirely different species from the employment kind.

When an employer requires an employee to move his or her primary residence to work, or continue working, for the employer, oftentimes the employer, as an inducement for the employee to accept the offer employment or continue employment, will agree to pay for some or all of the employee’s “relocation costs.”

True story: the other day I was speaking with a friend in the HR realm and I asked him whether he was familiar with the fluctuating workweek. He jokingly answered: “does that have anything to do with my weight gain during the holiday season?”

Under the federal WARN Act, and its more expansive counterpart, the New York State WARN Act, a sufficiently-sized employer must (absent limited exceptions) provide workers with a head’s up that the employer might shut down its operations or layoff a sizeable portion of the workforce.

It is a story familiar to many companies. Company hires employee into a managerial position exposing the employee to its confidential and trade secret information.