The Employment Essentials blog apologizes for being inaccessible the last several days. We confess to failing to follow appropriate guidelines at our New Year’s Holiday party, with the end result being a several-day long hangover. But we’re back up and running into 2012, starting with this excellent piece on the always fact-specific ‘going and coming’ rule.
With Christmas just days around the corner, we’d like to wish all our readers a happy, safe and enjoyable holiday season. For those in the world of HR and employment, we have a special treat to keep your spirits bright — our annual holiday poem:
The National Labor Relations Board (the “Board”) has been a hot topic on this blog in 2011, so it’s not surprising we are still talking about them as the year comes to a close.
Back in August, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit decided a case and ruled that the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (“USERRA”) did not recognize claims of hostile work environment based on an employee’s membership in the National Guard or Reserves. Well, Congress was obviously not happy with that opinion nor the reporting and publicity about it – one part of which can be found in this forum here.
The West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals has just handed-down an opinion reviewing provisions of the Wage Payment and Collection Act (“WPCA”) that all employers will find interesting. In Lehman v. United Bank, Inc., Number 101486, (November 10, 2011), the Court was faced with reviewing a Circuit Court’s dismissal of a case filed by two former United Bank employees who alleged that they were owed liquidated damages for failure to pay severance pay within the WPCA’s 72-hour window when the employees’ positions were eliminated as a result of a merger.
At this point, who hasn’t heard about the recent scandal at Penn State? It has shocked America and sent the University into an institutional crisis. Allegations of child sexual abuse are not unique to educational institutions, however. They can happen in employment settings, too.
In a blog article last month, the importance of properly classifying workers as employees rather than independent contractors was discussed at length. As discussed, there is often a fine line between the employee and independent contractor classification, and many employers choose the latter in order to save on payroll taxes and employee benefits. However, this decision can be costly if the IRS conducts an audit and determines that misclassifications have occurred.
In 2006, managed care of workers’ compensation claims went active in West Virginia. The move to managed care had begun in the early 1990s as increases in medical costs had become the primary drivers of workers’ compensation costs. Initial attempts to implement managed care systems involved the implementation of preferred care guidelines in states like Colorado, Washington, and Minnesota. As West Virginia faced an increasing crisis in its workers’ compensation system in the early 2000s, a managed care system gained traction as a popular measure to control spiraling costs.
A few weeks ago in this forum, we talked about an important opinion from the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals – the Circuit in which Kentucky and Ohio sit – on associational discrimination. Well, that Court must be enjoying its time in the spotlight, because it recently issued another important decision to employers in the region, this time relating to how the term “employer” is defined under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Steptoe & Johnson Recent News
NEW TAX CREDIT INCENTIVES FOR EMPLOYERS TO HIRE VETERANS
It seems like everyone today likes to throw around the statement “Support Our Troops.” It’s a noble thought, and one that every American should heed. However, when it comes to employing our veterans after their service is completed, there appears to be a disconnect.
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