Employee Relations Insight

UnumProvident has published an interesting paper, “Reducing Lost Time: The Correlation Between Family-Medical Leave and Short-Term Disability.” The paper describes the insurer’s 2005 study of “the various connections between lost time and the benefits that are paid to an individual during an absence.” The study included lost time data over a two year period from [...]

Covered employers are not required to resurvey their workforces pursuant to the revised ethnic and racial categories until the reporting period ending September 30, 2008, one year past the original effective date. Other aspects of the revised EEO-1 procedure continue to take effect with the close of the 2007 reporting period.

The way that management initially handles a complaint of workplace misconduct can affect the likelihood of later litigation. Read Before the Investigation—The Importance of Intake from Sepler & Associates.

The U.S. Department of Labor posts a substantial amount of guidance for employers on its web site. This is the current list of topics on which the Agency provides free compliance information: Drug-Free Workplace Advisor Family & Medical Leave Act (FMLA) Advisor Federal Contractor Compliance Advisor FirstStep Employment Law Advisor FLSA Child Labor Rules Advisor [...]

COBRA, the federal Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act, requires that administrators of covered health plans notify their terminated employees of a limited option to continue the group health benefits they had before termination. Substantial liability can be at risk if the employee asserts that he or she never received this “COBRA notice” and the plan [...]

A pattern became apparent recently as I was listening to clients in a mediation session. Over the past several years, many of my clients—mostly organizations but occasionally individuals—have described their working environments as “like family.” That feeling, of course, predated the sudden turn of events that caused these “family” members to become estranged and to [...]