Health Care Reform Legislation Signed Into Law - Patient Protection & Affordable Care Act (H.R. 3590) and the Health Care and Education Affordability Reconciliation Act of 2010 (H.R. 4872) On March 23, 2010, President Barack Obama signed the Patient Protection & Affordable Care Act (H.R. 3590) and the Health Care and Education Affordability Reconciliation Act of 2010 (H.R. 4872) into law. This combined legislation significantly reforms health care, and will have an eventual impact on certain employers. (A summary of the legislation is available here.)Although the extent of the laws' impact on employers is unknown at this time (and at least 14 states have already filed federal legal challenges attacking the 2,400-page legislation’s constitutionality), MBA will continue to provide you with important updates regarding the steps you must take to ensure you are in compliance. Please note that the majority of the reforms affecting employers do not become effective until 2014; however, cert ...

What else do they look for during a Department of Labor (DOL) gov. compliance audit? During a DOL gov. compliance audit, the investigator covers many areas of your business. The primary focus is on your pay records.   DOL investigators also usually review the employer's adherence to federal child-labor laws, which prescribe the number of hours and times of day-night youths may work, as well as the jobs they may perform. Click here for a link to the DOL’s FAQ on child labor laws   DOL investigators will also perform at least a cursory analysis of the employer's compliance with the Family and Medical Leave Act and will make sure mandatory posters are displayed. See DOL's Web site for poster information. Click here for a link to the DOL’s FMLA information page Modern Business Associates helps our clients deal with DOL gov. compliance audit issues. As a Professional Employee Organization, our clients rely on us to help them ef ...

WARN act can ruin your layoff plan, are you at risk? Here at Modern Business Associates, we frequently deal with federal labor and employment laws and how they affect our clients. Laws relating to layoffs have been a hot topic lately. The Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN act) is one such hot legal issue. The WARN act sets forth specific notification requirements for covered employers undergoing certain layoffs. (States including California, Illinois, Maine, and New Jersey have enacted similar legislation expanding an employer's notification obligations.) In part, the WARN act requires employers with 100 or more employees to provide workers with 60 days written notice of: Plant Closings Mass Layoffs Under the WARN act, a "plant closing" is a permanent or temporary shutdown of a single site of employment resulting in an employment loss of 50 or more employees during a 30-day period. Under the WARN act, a "mass layoff" is either a reduction in workforce ...

Did you know salaried employees may not have an exempt status according to the Fair Labor and Standards Act (FLSA)? An employer, deciding about the exempt/non exempt status of an employee, who takes prohibited deductions, puts employees' exempt status at risk--meaning those employees potentially could be entitled to minimum wage and overtime for all hours they worked, going back at least two years Who can get an exempt status anyway? Three criteria must be met before an employee can be classified as exempt according to the labor standards act.   1.       The employee must make at least a certain minimum-salary level. ·      The employee must earn a salary of at least $455 per week ($23,600 annually). If an employee does not earn at least this amount, the employee is not exempt and is entitled to minimum wage and overtime. Certain highly-compensated employees who earn at least $100,000 annually may also qualify as non-exem ...

Benefits of Performance Appraisals include Compliance Protection A performance appraisal system, when properly managed, provides you with a means of measuring, maintaining, and improving your employee’s job performances. Through the job performance appraisal program, your company can: Validate hiring decisions Recognize employees' job performance strengths and weaknesses Identify employees who are ready for promotion or greater responsibilities Assess training needs From a compliance perspective, you should be able to rely on performance appraisals to justify the full range of personnel decisions, including discipline and termination actions. For example, if a performance appraisal reflects poor job performance by the employee and this employee is later terminated, the you can point to the performance appraisal to show the employee was not performing to standards. If, however, an employee with overall weak performance is given a good or even average appraisal, an ...