Employment Laws - Page 17
This is FindLaw's collection of Employment Laws articles, part of the Human Resources section of the Corporate Counsel Center. Law articles in this archive are predominantly written by lawyers for a professional audience seeking business solutions to legal issues. Start your free research with FindLaw.
Human Resources
Employment Laws Articles
-
Those on the front lines of the battles over who is or is not an exempt administrative employee under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) or various state wage and hour laws are well aware of the deluge of cases in the past five years ? many of them collective and class actions ? about whether claims adjusters at insurance and other companies are exempt from overtime requirements of federal or state law. -
Effective May 2, 2005 employers in Florida must pay hourly employees $6.15 per hour and tipped employees $3.13 per hour. The provisions of the Florida Minimum Wage dictate costly penalties for noncompliant employers. -
On April 12, 2005, Acting Governor Richard J. Codey signed a bill into law which will increase New Jersey's minimum hourly wage to $7.15 over the next two years, $2.00 higher than the current federally-mandated $5.15 minimum hourly wage. The New Jersey minimum wage will increase to $6.15 per hour on October 1, 2005, and then to $7.15, effective October 1, 2006. -
In a recent decision, the U.S. Supreme Court held that workers age 40 and over do not have to prove an intent to discriminate and may allege age discrimination under the ADEA under a "disparate impact" theory. The proof required for such an action, however, may be more favorable to employers than in other discrimination cases. -
On March 7, 2005, Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich signed into law an act that amended Section 604 of the Illinois Unemployment Insurance Act. As amended, Section 604 now provides unemployment benefits to employees who are locked out by their employer. Effective January 1, 2006, locked out employees will be entitled to receive benefits provided the employees are not otherwise disqualified from receiving benefits under another section of the Illinois Unemployment Compensation Act. -
Although declining to overturn the results of a representation election in Delta Brands Inc., the NLRB's decision serves as a warning to employers that the Board will continue to scrutinize workplace policies and rules contained in employee handbooks. -
The Department of Labor recently issued final "safe harbor" regulations relating to the automatic rollover of certain mandatory distributions from qualified retirement plans that contain a "cash out" feature. A "cash out" feature provides for an immediate distribution to a former employee of his or her vested accrued benefit under the plan when the benefit is below a certain threshold amount. The Internal Revenue Service also issued recent guidance in Notice 2005-5 and an IRS News Flash, dated February 16, 2005, that clarifies the automatic rollover rules. The following is a summary of the most salient features of these rules. -
Suffering "HIPAA Privacy Rule fatigue," many human resources and benefits professionals have passed the compliance baton for the HIPAA Security Rule to their colleagues in the Information Technology (IT) Department. Letting IT grapple on its own with the HIPAA Security Rule most likely will mean that your organization will not meet the April 21, 2005, compliance deadline for covered health plans with annual receipts exceeding $5 million, or even the April 21, 2006 compliance deadline for covered health plans falling below that threshold. -
California's expanded domestic partnership law, effective January 1, 2005, presents thorny issues for California employers covered by both the state and federal family leave laws. -
New Eleventh Circuit Ruling in Palmer & Cay Promotes Racing to the Courthouse in Noncompete Disputes
Employers with multi-state noncompete contracts may want to lace up their best pair of running shoes and get ready for a race. On April 1, 2005, the 11th Circuit issued an opinion in Palmer & Cay, Inc. v. Marsh & McLennan Companies, Inc., that some commentators are interpreting as an open door to forum shopping.