labor lawAdivision of labor law center

The new 2009 FMLA regulations present a particular headache for California employers.

That is because most employers in the state are covered by the CFRA, the California Family Rights Act. That law, passed in, was actually the model for the federal FMLA passed in 1993.

The dilemma is that the CFRA specifically adopted the 1995 FMLA regulations – the “old” regulations, to many employers. Meanwhile, the new FMLA regulations apply to many of the same employers.

There are several conflicts between the two sets of regulations. For example, the 2009 FMLA regulations give employers the right to require that an employee produce a fitness-for-duty certificate every 30 days when there are reasonable concerns about the employee’s physical safety due to a serious health condition, and the employee is using FMLA intermittently.

The California regulations do not permit this.

When both federal and state law apply, the employee is entitled to coverage under whichever law provides the greater benefit – to the employee. (more…)

Employers throughout the U.S. are carefully watching what is happening these days in the District of Columbia.

D.C. has approved a controversial new act known as the Accrued Sick and Safe Leave Act of 2008, which essentially requires employers to provide paid sick leave to their workers. The act may be the harbinger of paid sick leave elsewhere, and has become an important topic among HR professionals.

Employees who would be eligible are those who, first of all, spend at least 50% of their work time in the District of Columbia. They must also have accumulated a year of continuous service and at least 1,000 hours of work in the previous 12 months, under the proposed act.

The new law is quite broad. Employers would be required to give paid sick leave to any of these eligible employees for any absences connected with (more…)

The new stimulus package has employers scrambling to conform to the COBRA expansion and take advantage of the COBRA subsidy.

Under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 or ARRA, also known as President Obama’s stimulus package, health care premiums for laid off employees are partially subsidized.

The bill, signed into law by President Barack Obama on February 17, 2009, provides a government subsidy of COBRA continuation coverage for a maximum of 9 months for certain laid-off workers and their eligible dependents. The measure does not cover employees who voluntarily quit.

Under the ARRA, plan administrators need to inform eligible employees and their beneficiaries of the program, implement extended COBRA coverage periods, and implement administrative procedures to take advantage of the subsidy.

In one of the major changes, the ARRA will subsidize 65% of the COBRA premium charged (more…)

According to inside sources at the U.S. Department of Treasury, new federal regulations regarding cafeteria benefit plans are likely to be published within the next 30 to 60 days.

These regulations would be in addition to the regulations already published in the Federal Register. These regulations collect many of the principles and rules that the IRS or Internal Revenue Service has issued formally or informally over the past 20 years.

One aspect of the new regulations will not be finalized until President Barack Obama takes office. That is the controversial non-discrimination clause in the regulations. As soon as more information is available on that regulation, it will be published here.

One change in the new cafeteria benefits plan will allow employers to add COBRA benefits to the options available. This benefit is typically used by employees who become old enough for Medicare. The employee often uses cafeteria funds to pay for COBRA premiums, (more…)

On January 1, 2009, New Jersey becomes the third state in the nation to implement a family leave insurance program. The New Jersey Paid Family Leave Act will permit employees to take paid time off to care for a sick family member. The act also provides benefits to workers who take time off to bond with newborn or newly-adopted children.

The New Jersey Family Leave Insurance program is funded by employee tax deductions. The program provides benefits to employees to partially replace income lost when they must take time from work. The law does not entitle employees to additional leave, over and above existing family leave laws such as FMLA, the federal Family and Medical Leave Act and the New Jersey Family Leave Act or NJFLA.

The New Jersey Paid Family Leave program does not guarantee that an employee will be returned to his or her job after leave; it simply provides cash benefits during the leave.

Under the new law, a New Jersey employer can require any employee to use up to two weeks of paid vacation or sick leave, or other paid leave, before going on leave. During these two weeks, (more…)