Christian Schappel
To terminate FLSA accusations against it brought on by the DOL, oil and gas giant Halliburton Co. will shell out $18.3M. Its mistake is always No. 1 on every list ever assembled of things employers should not do when employing salaried workers.
Three examples of such lists can be found here, here and here.
The mistake in question: making all salaried employees exempt from overtime, without considering their income or whether they pass the duties tests.
According to a report by Reuters, the DOL said Halliburton automatically exempted all salaried workers from overtime without considering their pay or duties.
That’s a massive no-no. Still, it’s one that the DOL finds pretty often.
This mistake was caught as part of an ongoing multi-year compliance initiative by the DOL to investigate major players in the oil and gas industry for violations of the FLSA.
According to a release by the DOL, the agency’s investigators found that Halliburton incorrectly categorized employees in 28 job positions as exempt from overtime.
Some of the positions incorrectly classified as exempt:
Click here for entire article.
Pretty much everybody agrees: The annual performance review process is deeply flawed. But there’s another common review procedure that needs to be torn down and rebuilt as well, according to guest poster Glint CEO Jim Barnett.
_______________________________________________________________
The Washington Post said it best: “Big business is falling out of love with the annual performance review.” Some of the world’s most admired organizations, like Accenture, Deloitte, and most recently, GE, are eliminating traditional annual processes for evaluating employee performance in favor of “more frequent conversations.”
This transition is indicative of a major shift in the way we work. Once viewed as a traditional “rite of corporate life,” the annual performance review has now been abandoned by more than 10% of Fortune-500 companies. We believe this is just the beginning of a dramatic change in performance management systems and practices.
The goal of eliminating the annual performance review is to replace an ineffective, often painful process for managers and employees alike with regular check-ins about development. No more high-stakes, once-a-year grades that go on your “permanent record:” Instead, a regular dialogue where feedback and course correction happen much more frequently.
Click here for entire article.
by Jared Bilski
Flexible scheduling options that allow employees to start their workday later may bolster a lot more than just morale.
According to sleep expert and Oxford University Professor Dr. Paul Kelley, a traditional nine-to-five workday is only benefiting a very small segment of employees because that start time is too early for most people.
You heard that right — nine in the morning is too early to start work. Unless you’re in the 55-and-older demographic, Kelley says you’re fighting your body’s natural biorhythms by starting the workday closer to 10 a.m.
Optimal wake-up times
As reported in The Guardian, Kelley originally started conducting research to find out when school-age children experienced “true body awakening” and whether the starting time at most schools was optimal for those children.
That research uncovered the following body wake-up times for children:
Click here for entire article.
by Christian Schappel
You’d think this would’ve gone without saying, given all of the one-sided legal hullabaloo in this area recently. But this is the federal government we’re talking about, and what should go without saying must be said (or, rather, carved into stone).
In a new rule issued by the DOL, the feds are officially saying: Let employees talk and ask questions about their pay — and the pay of others.
The issuing of the rule was the result of an executive order by President Obama.
The rule prohibits federal contractors from keeping “pay secrecy” policies.
The nuts and bolts of the new rule:
- It applies to any organization that holds any contracts, subcontracts or federally assisted construction contracts that have a combined total of $10,000 or more in any 12-month period. It also applies to any organization that holds government bills of lading, serves as a depository of federal funds, or is an issuing and paying agency for U.S. savings bonds and notes in any amount.
- It says federal contractors and subcontractors may not fire or discriminate against employees for discussing, disclosing or inquiring about their own pay or that of their co-workers.
- It also protects those same types of pay discussions by job applicants.
Click here for entire article.
by Christian Schappel
It never ends. You’re already trying to comply with Obamacare. Then, you’ll have to deal with the DOL’s new overtime exemption rule changes. What’s next?
A wave of workers’ compensation claims, according to one insider.
Our good friends over at SafetyNewsAlert.com recently attended the annual conference for the Association of Occupational Health Professionals in Healthcare and came back with some concerning info for HR pros.
‘It’ll double’
While presenting at the conference, Phil Walker, the founder of the Phil Walker Work Comp Savings Company and a national trial counsel for employers in California workers’ comp cases, said workers’ compensation claims will double over the next 10 years.
According to Fred Hosier, SafetyNewsAlert’s editor-in-chief, Walker said there are three reasons for this:
- Technology will eliminate low-paying jobs. We’re already seeing this at places like Amazon, which is using robots to eliminate warehouse jobs, and Wendy’s, which is starting to use order kiosks in place of warm-blooded order-takers, Walker said. And what happens when low-paying jobs are eliminated? People who occupied those positions file workers’ comp claims
Click here for entire article.
by Christian Schappel
If you think the Obamacare reporting requirements issued by the IRS are confusing, you’re not alone. But we’ve cut through the clutter to get to the point of what’s required.
Who has to report
First of all, let’s make it clear who has to abide by these reporting rules. Who knows maybe you’re small enough to recuse yourself from all this mess.
The reporting requirements apply to “applicable large employers” (ALE) — those who employ 50 or more full-time or full-time equivalent employees. They also apply to anyone who provides minimum essential health coverage under the law to an individual — this would apply to a very small self-insured employer, for example.
Who’s a full-time equivalent employee? That’s an issue we tackle here.
The IRS then says: “If an employer has fewer than 50 full-time employees, including full-time equivalent employees, on average during the prior year, the employer is not an ALE for the current calendar year. Therefore, the employer is not subject to the employer shared responsibility provisions or the employer information reporting provisions for the current year.”
Reporting requirements
Now it’s time to get down to brass tacks.
Click here for entire article.
by Jared Bi
If you’ve got any employees who are logging serious overtime week after week, you’ll want to take note of how the court handled this case.
Judith Dietz v. Workers’ Compensation Appeal was a case that centered around a Pennsylvania municipal water department employee, Robert Dietz, who had a deadly heart attack on the job. Dietz was a 48-year-old field maintenance worker who routinely logged more than 40 hours per week and was always on call. He was also a heavy smoker.
Dietz’s heart attack took place during a 14-hour shift.
Long hours or smoking habit?
Click here for entire article.
