The Department of Labor (“DOL”) has proposed a new safe harbor to allow employers to furnish information to participants and beneficiaries subject to ERISA. While it is a welcome update to the DOL’s woefully outdated disclosure rules previously covered on our All Things HR Blog, there are numerous technical details and exceptions, which each employer …
Keepin’ It Real: Wage and Hour Issues in the Reality TV Industry
In September 2014, four reality TV participants on the show Texas Car Wars sued the network Megalomedia for violating the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) alleging that Megalomedia did not pay them in full for their time on the show. According to the participants, film shoots regularly exceeded 40 hours per week and participants were …
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Pay Attention to Requests for ERISA Plan Documents or Risk the Con$equence$
Every so often an employer sponsoring an ERISA employee benefit plan will receive a written request from a participant or beneficiary (or their legal counsel) to provide plan related documents. Sometimes the request asks for specific documents and sometimes the request is broader, asking for all instruments under which the plan is established or operated, …
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Recent Changes to the H-1B Specialty Worker Program
Labor Condition Applications must be filed under the new DOL’S FLAG System As part of the U.S. Department of Labor’s (“USDOL”) technology modernization initiative, the FLAG System (Foreign Labor Application Gateway) was developed to replace the legacy iCert system with the USDOL’s stated goal of improving customer service, and modernizing the administration of foreign labor …
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Federal Court Holds Cannabis Businesses are Subject to Federal Wage Laws
In Kenney v. Helix TCS, Inc. No. 18-1105 (10th Cir. Sept. 20, 2019), the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals held that employers in the cannabis industry must abide by the wage/hour requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) despite that cannabis remains federally prohibited as a Schedule 1 controlled substance under the Controlled Substances …
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DOL Issues Final Overtime Rule Increasing the White-Collar Employee Salary Threshold. Employers Have Until January 1, 2020 to Change Payroll Practices.
30 FAQs about the New Rule The Department of Labor (“DOL”) unveiled the final version of its overtime exemption rule (the “Rule”), which sets the annual salary threshold for exempt employees to qualify for the Fair Labor Standards Act’s (“FLSA”) white-collar exemptions at $35,568 per year or $684 a week, an increase from the current …
Pay Transparency and Pay Equity in Ontario
Two new laws that seek to enhance pay transparency and pay equity have been passed and, once proclaimed, will impact provincially-regulated and federally-regulated employees and employers. Bill 3, Pay Transparency Act, 2018 – For Provincially Regulated Employers and Employees The Ontario government passed Bill 3, Pay Transparency Act, 2018 (PTA), which imposes requirements on Ontario …
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What to Do if Your Company is Close to the Affordable Care Act’s 50 Full-time Employee Threshold
Having recently helped a client determine if it employed on average more than 50 employees per month in a calendar year and therefore was an applicable large employer (“ALE”) subject to the Affordable Care Act (“ACA”) in the following calendar year, I had many opportunities to see the complexities of the ACA’s rules in operation. …
New York Passes Expansive Discrimination Laws Requiring Employers to Immediately Review their New-Hire Policies and Employment-Related Contracts
The patchwork of state employment laws just got a few more patches. On July 12th and August 12th (Senate Bill S6577), Governor Cuomo signed two employment-focused laws that added a number of updates to the New York State Human Rights Law (NYSHRL). The first law, which took effect on July 12 on signature by the …
Considerations for Plan Sponsors Who Discover Unauthorized Workers in their Retirement Plans, Part 2: Tax Reporting, Withholding, and Missing Participants
With immigration enforcement in the news, some employers may be wondering what responsibilities they have related to their retirement plans, if an employer discovers that an employee lacks documentation to demonstrate they are authorized to work in the United States legally. In Part 1 of this series, I addressed the consequences under ERISA of undocumented …