An Ounce of Benefits is Worth a Pound of Pay

By Paul Crucet and Thomas Raine on March 20, 2019 Posted in Employee Benefits & Compensation

The United States is currently nearing full employment with the unemployment rate under 4%. Such a hypercompetitive labor market calls for innovation and creativity in luring and retaining top talent. A new study that sheds light on how employees value benefits may help employers maximize the “bang for the buck” of benefits packages offered to prospective and current workers.

An article published by Bloomberg highlights a National Bureau of Economic Research working paper that reveals which benefits employees prefer, and actually assigns a dollar amount that employees are willing to forgo in the form of wages in exchange for each benefit. The study’s data (displayed below) shows that in many cases American workers are willing to forgo “substantial” earnings in exchange for specific non-wage benefits that more than offset the equivalent cost to the employer of offering such benefits. Continue Reading

Reading Your Employment Policy Documents Probably Won’t Win You $10,000- It Could Be Worth Much More

By Stearns Weaver Miller on March 12, 2019 Posted in Employee Handbooks & Policies

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Recently, an insurance company released a story about a secret contest it launched offering $10,000 to the first person who read their insurance policy. The catch: the only way you could find out about the contest was to actually read the policy. 73 policies were sold and sent out before someone claimed the prize.

Insurance policies are not the only important documents that people fail to read. Most people receive a hefty stack of paperwork when starting a new job such as the employee handbook, benefits documents and other important documents. Most people just read the first few pages before signing a form stating that they agree to all the terms and conditions. Continue Reading

REGISTRATION OPEN! Annual Labor & Employment Law Seminars

By Robert Turk on February 25, 2019 Posted in Immigration, Labor Law

29th Annual Miami Labor and Employment Law Seminar

Friday, May 17 | 8am-4:15pm | Hard Rock Stadium

2nd Annual Tampa Labor and Employment Law Seminar

Friday, May 10 | 8am-4pm | Tampa Bay History Center

Our annual seminars draw hundreds of human resource professionals, in-house counsel and senior executives from Florida’s top businesses. And for good reason! No one does events quite like we do – our seminars are not just lectures, they are learning experiences. This year will not disappoint.

At both seminars, speakers from our Labor & Employment group will cover the following topics:

Long-Term LOA, FMLA and ADA
Workplace Investigations
Our Indispensable Termination Checklist
Offer Letters and Other Pre-Employment Considerations

…and much more! Plus, in addition to the presentations, this year our seminars will include panel discussions covering NLRB Workplace Rules, What’s Up at the EEOC, Wage and Hour Hot Topics.

Click here for the full agenda in Miami and here for the full agenda in Tampa. (Pending HRCI Credits, SHRM Credits and The Florida Bar CLE Credits)

We look forward to seeing you in May!

REGISTER FOR MIAMI

REGISTER FOR TAMPA

Don’t worry – the famous POPCORN will be back this year too!

E-Verify Operations Resume – Guidance from Department of Homeland Security

By Glenn Rissman on January 29, 2019 Posted in Immigration

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With Friday’s agreement to re-open government operations, at least temporarily, E-Verify is once again operational. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has provided the following guidance to employers who participate in the E-Verify program.

Gambling at Work: Everybody Out of the (Office) Pool

By Andrew Rodman and Thomas Raine on January 29, 2019 Posted in Employee Handbooks & Policies

With Super Bowl LIII this Sunday and March Madness fast approaching, it is important to consider the impact of office pools on the workplace.

Office pools can build workplace morale and improve employee relationships, not to mention add a little fun to the typical workday. Yet they remain illegal in many states, including Florida. In a recent article that I wrote for the Daily Business Review, I outlined the practical and legal risks employers should consider before implementing policies towards office pools.

You can view the article here.

*Special thanks to Thomas Raine, who assisted in the drafting of this post. Thomas is a third year Juris Doctor Candidate at the University of Miami School of Law.

Don’t Be Snake Bit. Make Sure the COBRA Notices You Use Are Correct.

By Stearns Weaver Miller on January 24, 2019 Posted in Employee Benefits & Compensation

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Using a vendor for your COBRA compliance does not mean you are safe from claims. The employer bears ultimate responsibility for complying with COBRA. It appears that Pepsico and Lockheed may be about to learn this lesson. Both were sued recently in Hillsborough County for failure to send proper COBRA election notices after employees terminated employment. In both cases, the COBRA notices at issue appear to be from a third party COBRA administrator. The plaintiffs allege that the COBRA notices did not contain all of the items required under the COBRA notice regulations such as the address for mailing payments, the name of the plan administrator, and when the COBRA coverage would terminate.

Our Group is Growing Again – Tallahassee Here We Come!

By Robert Turk and Melanie Leitman on January 22, 2019 Posted in Labor Law

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We are pleased to welcome Melanie Leitman to our Labor & Employment Law group. We look forward to Melanie being a part of the continued expansion of our Labor & Employment practice throughout the State. Our Labor and Employment attorneys have established a solid reputation in South and Central Florida for nearly four decades. In 2017, we expanded our Central Florida footprint with the addition of Janet McEnery and Andy McLaughlin to our Tampa office. We are excited to extend our services to clients in the Tallahassee market and throughout North Florida.

Melanie’s practice includes employment defense litigation and Human Resources compliance, consultation, and training. She has experience representing management-side clients in various employment-related claims, including Chapter 760, Title VII, ADA, FMLA, FLSA, whistleblower retaliation claims, drafting and enforcement/defense of covenants prohibiting competition, and constitutional claims arising out of employment disputes. She has represented clients in pre-claim consultation, EEOC/FCHR position statements and investigations, state/federal court litigation, and appellate disposition thereof. Read her full bio here.

Stay tuned for details regarding upcoming seminars in your area and join us in welcoming our newest member to the Stearns Weaver Miller family!

E-Verify a Victim of Partial Government Shutdown

By Glenn Rissman on January 16, 2019 Posted in Immigration

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One of the casualties of the partial government shutdown is the Department of Homeland Security’s E-Verify program. Employers that participate in E-Verify verify the identity and employment eligibility of newly hired employees by electronically matching information provided by employees on the Form I-9 against records available to the Social Security Administration (SSA) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

While E-Verify is unavailable, employers will not be able to access their E-Verify accounts to: create an E-Verify case; view or take action on any case; add, delete or edit any user account; reset passwords; edit company information; terminate accounts; or run reports. Employees will also be unable to resolve E-Verify Tentative Nonconfirmations (TNCs). Continue Reading

Dave & Buster’s Settlement – Busted! But Not So Fast….

By Sharon Quinn Dixon on January 11, 2019 Posted in Discrimination & Harassment, Employee Benefits & Compensation

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The Dave & Buster’s restaurant chain recently settled a class action lawsuit claiming it violated ERISA’s “discrimination” rules by reducing hours of various employees to cause them to lose eligibility for the company’s group health plan. After over three years of litigation in the Southern District of New York and suffering some procedural losses along the way, Dave & Buster’s agreed to settle the matter for $7.425 million. After attorneys’ fees and costs, we estimate the employees will receive about $2,100 each.

Dave & Buster’s took the action in response to the “employer mandate” provisions of the Affordable Care Act, which require large employers to offer compliant and affordable group health coverage to full-time employees, generally defined as those working an average of at least 30 hours each week, in order to avoid potentially substantial tax penalties. The saga took a long time to play out. The law passed in March 2010. Dave & Buster’s started reducing employees’ hours in mid-2013. The lead plaintiff worked a reduced shift and lost eligibility for group health insurance in March 2014. She filed suit in May 2015. The court approved the settlement in December 2018. The class members have to be notified, the plaintiffs’ attorneys will seek their fees and the court is expected to approve everything once and for all in mid-May 2019. After that, class members will be paid, likely well into late-2019. Continue Reading

Performance Evaluations Are… Coming to Town?

By Stearns Weaver Miller on December 26, 2018 Posted in Employee & Management Counseling

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“He’s making a list and checking it twice. He’s going to find out who’s naughty or nice… performance evaluations are…” Coming to town? Indeed. The end of year is not only holiday season, but also the time of year when a number of employers complete performance evaluations of their employees.

Just like gift giving, the evaluation process is time consuming and for many, about as much fun as a trip to the mall on Black Friday. However, evaluations—if done right—are essential to companies in various ways such as identifying and logging an employee’s performance, advising an employee on goals for the coming year, or even serving as key evidence in a company’s defense of a legal claim brought by a terminated employee. Continue Reading