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Insurance

How can we protect ourselves? We’re worried aging employee will hurt himself

12/24/2008

Q. One of our employees is over age 70 and has recently had memory problems and a car wreck. What (if anything) can we do to protect ourselves from potential workers’ comp claims should he injure himself?

Do we have to pay health insurance opt-out bonus during FMLA leave?

12/18/2008

Q. Our company offers a health insurance opt-out incentive, paying employees $400 a month if they use their spouses’ insurance plans. We now have an employee going out on FMLA maternity leave. Do we have to keep paying her $400 per month?

Unfair labor charges

12/15/2008

Q. Our employee relations manager received a charge of an unfair labor practice (ULP) filed by the union with the National Labor Relations Board. In the ULP charge, the union alleges that when the secretary for our attorneys contacted a former employee—who had been discharged for misconduct—to schedule his deposition in his unemployment compensation proceeding, our company engaged in coercive interrogation in violation of the National Labor Relations Act and the Johnnie’s Poultry standard. There were no unfair labor practice proceedings pending before we received this ULP charge. What is Johnnie’s Poultry, and how is scheduling a deposition in a proceeding about a former employee’s unemployment compensation claim an unlawful labor practice?

Florida workers’ comp premiums to drop again

12/09/2008

The workers’ compensation premiums Florida employers pay are set to drop for the sixth time in the past five years, and by a record amount. Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty approved an 18.6% rate cut.

Florida Supreme Court sides with employees in fee dispute

12/09/2008

It just became more expensive for employers and their workers’ compensation carriers to handle workplace injuries. The Florida Supreme Court has ruled that attorneys representing injured workers are entitled to “reasonable attorneys’ fees,” which can far exceed those set by the workers’ compensation statute.

‘Sunshine Troublemaker’ puts heat on school districts

12/09/2008

Encouraged by a victory in Polk County Circuit Court, Lakeland resident and public-records gadfly Joel Chandler submitted public records requests to the state’s 67 school districts demanding the names, addresses, ages and telephone numbers of every person covered by the districts’ health insurance plans.

Quit or fired? Answer affects whether you pay unemployment

12/09/2008

How an employer handles an employee who doesn’t show up for work can mean the difference between paying unemployment compensation and not being liable.

Obama health plan would raise coverage, some employer costs

12/08/2008

President-elect Barack Obama has said his plan for universal health coverage would reduce health care costs and save American businesses $140 billion a year. It would do so largely by requiring big businesses to provide health insurance for their workers or else pay into a federal fund that would provide coverage.

Encourage organ donations by offering extra days off

12/08/2008

Offering an extra three to 30 days of paid leave to employees who donate bone marrow or organs could improve your organization’s reputation as a company that cares about its community. Less than half of 1% of those who register as potential donors will ever be called to give, so the benefit will cost your organization very little.

Fitness classes cut employee use of prescription medicines

12/08/2008

The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association in Rockville, Md., has figured out a way to reduce its employees’ reliance on medication: fitness classes.