• The HR Specialist - Print Newsletter
  • HR Specialist: Employment Law
  • The HR Weekly

Insurance

Court says liability insurer must cover employee defamation

05/30/2008
Good news for employers carrying various types of liability coverage: A Texas Court of Appeals has sided with an employer that attempted to collect on a liability policy after it lost a $1.75 million defamation judgment …

Continental Tire must fund VEBA

05/28/2008
Charlotte-based Continental Tire North America has agreed to pay $158 million into a Voluntary Employees’ Beneficiary Association, or VEBA, to continue health care benefits for approximately 2,400 retirees and workers. The workers sued after Continental reduced retiree health care benefits …

An introduction to North Carolina Employment Security Law

05/28/2008
 The North Carolina Employment Security Law provides unemployment compensation benefits for some employees who lose their jobs. To qualify, unemployed workers must have registered for work and periodically report to an unemployment office. Occasionally eligibility disputes find their way into court …

$500 buys a lot of cigarettes

05/27/2008
Nobody really likes being reformed, and that can make administering corporate wellness programs tricky, as Whirlpool recently found out. The company suspended 39 workers at its Evansville plant after discovering they lied about being nonsmokers to get a $500 discount on health insurance …

After learning of possible serious medical condition, what are our legal obligations?

05/23/2008
Q. An employee told us he has a bad hernia. He wants to wait a couple months to have the operation, since it requires six weeks’ recovery. He does some lifting in his job. Yesterday, he had to go home early because he was in pain. Now that we are aware of his condition, what’s our liability? And what should we do?

Higher pay for LAX hotel workers as ‘Living wage’ law stands

05/16/2008
Hotels near Los Angeles International Airport will have to begin offering higher pay. The California Supreme Court has declined to review an appeals court decision upholding a city ordinance that requires the hotels to pay its workers the city’s living-wage rate …

Paying for insurance while on disability

05/15/2008

Q. We have an employee who is currently on short-term disability (STD) and is approaching long-term disability (LTD). Our company pays 95% of medical insurance premiums and 100% of STD and LTD premiums. The employee is no longer receiving a salary. Does our company have to continue to provide and pay for medical insurance? — K.M., Arizona …

Duluth: Municipal retirees should sign up for Medicare

05/13/2008
The city of Duluth says it can save up to $600,000 per year if 37 of its retirees sign up for Medicare. The city discovered during a recent audit that some of its retirees weren’t enrolled in the federal retiree health insurance program …

SE Michigan businesses leery of state-Run health care

05/09/2008
A survey of Southeast Michigan business owners by the Detroit Regional Chamber of Commerce indicates serious reservations among area employers about state-run health care …

Texas court to rehear ruling on whether premises owner can avoid tort liability

05/05/2008
The Texas Supreme Court in April granted a petition to rehear its decision that a premises owner was protected from tort liability under the state’s workers’ compensation law because it was also a general contractor …