March 2018
Employment Practices Compliance
With the patchwork of federal, state, and local laws in place in the United States, compliance for employers remains challenging, but not impossible. This issue of @Work features best practice approaches and practical information and decision guides on everything from the FMLA and the ADA to paid parental and paid sick leave policies.
Features
Navigating the Interaction Between the FMLA and California Leaves
The federal Family and Medical Leave Act and the California Family Rights Act contain overlapping and sometimes conflicting employee rights and employer obligations regarding California family leave. Because this overlap can generate significant additional obligations, California family leave laws have national impact. Read more.
ADA Leave Compliance: Are You Sure Your House Is in Order?
Employers can find themselves at substantial litigation risk if they do not carefully consider leave as an ADA accommodation prior to terminating an employee who cannot return to work following an absence. To protect themselves, leave managers need to conduct a complete evaluation of requested accommodations. Read more.
Spotlight Articles
Program Showcase: Inclusive Parental Leave Policy
Implementing a new leave plan or policy can be difficult and complex, especially with parental/bonding leaves in which overlapping legal and cultural issues may generate powerful emotions. Ensuring your program is inclusive is a key component for compliance. Read more.
RTW Case Study: FMLA Evaluation Roadmap
We’ve all experienced those challenging Family and Medical Leave Act requests. The best way to handle each unique leave situation with confidence is by relying on a three-step roadmap and consistently applying it to every situation. Read more.
Compliance Makeover: Surveillance
One of the greatest concerns employers still face with the Family and Medical Leave Act is abuse. If planned carefully and strategically, surveillance can put you in a better position to gather critical evidence when adverse employment action is appropriate. Read more.
Compliance Makeover: Paid Sick Leave
The vast and complex patchwork of paid sick leave laws continues to expand, with a new law enacted in January 2018 and one new law enacted and eight taking effect in 2017. Now more than 40 jurisdictions have paid sick leave laws. Read more.
Columns
Work/Life Squeeze: FMLA Caregiver Leaves
Each type of employee-as-caregiver leave contains complexities that may trap the unwary employer, so it is imperative to understand the scope of these caregiver protections to ensure compliance. Read more.
Integrated Absence Management: Early Return to Work
Healthcare is by far the largest benefit expense. To mitigate this trend, employers are deploying a variety of strategies with mixed results. Scientific studies, however, point to appropriate, early return to work to help mitigate healthcare costs. Read more.
Absence Matters: Medical Certifications and Recertifications
For most disability and leave of absence administrative matters, the devil is in the details. Certainly, this is true with respect to the medical certification and recertification process under the Family and Medical Leave Act. Read more.
The Disabled Workforce: Fitness-for-Duty Examination
An employer can coordinate a fitness-for-duty examination with a qualified healthcare provider if the need is job-related and consistent with business necessity and objective facts, if there are concerns about safety, or if an employee is not fully performing the job duties. Read more.
Innovations Enhance Outcomes: Parental Bonding Leaves
There is considerable variability in employer leave policies governing childbirth, bonding, or adoption, and this is where issues of discrimination can creep in without well-meaning employers realizing it. Read more.
Accommodations Best Practice Guide: Training and Compliance
As professionals, we are aware of our organization’s obligations under the ADA regarding accommodations. In most organizations, however, line supervisors are often the first to learn of accommodation requests. How can we ensure legal compliance if we are out of the loop? Read more.
Riding the Demographic Wave: Boom and Burst
The largest generation in our country’s history is quickly approaching retirement age. While many Baby Boomers have already retired, 19% of people age 65 or older were working at least part-time in the second quarter of 2017. This is the highest rate since the modern retirement safety net began functioning. As a result, employers face a key disability and productivity issue. Read more.
6 Pillars of Leave Management: FMLA/ADA Intersection
By now, you may be an expert on the FMLA and its many requirements. But what about the ADA and when it overlaps with the FMLA? It’s important to know where these laws differ and when they intersect in order to fine-tune your ADA best practices. Read more.
Aligning Workers’ Compensation: WC-FMLA Data Exchange
Keeping the FMLA in synch with workers’ compensation indemnity claims has been a challenge since the inception of the FMLA. A simple data feed from the WC carrier, internal WC claims operation, or third-party administrator can make this task much simpler. Read more.
Departments
The CEO’s Desk: Compliance – Possible
Today’s workplace is unprecedented in its fragmented landscape for managing employee time off. And if the trajectory continues, managing these leave programs will be even more complex a year from now. And yet, compliance is not impossible. Read more.
DMEC News: March 2018
In this issue of DMEC News, we highlight results from the 7th Annual DMEC Employer Leave Management Survey and recognize two DMEC supporters, John Garner and Pam Porter, that we lost at the beginning of 2018. Read more.
Compliance Memos: March 2018
The March 2018 compliance memos cover the final ERISA disability claim regulations deadline of Apr. 1, the employer tax credit for family leave, New York Paid Family Leave, and Austin’s new paid sick leave law. Read more.
