A Fifth Circuit panel affirmed a $35,000 fine imposed by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration fine against a Texas highway construction business. The split panel found that the business may be held liable for the willful acts of an employee. Under the facts of this case, the act in question is a project foreman’s intentional disregard for required job site safety measures. The 2-1 panel upheld the Read More
LinkedIn Employees Must Rework Proposed Class Action Lawsuit Under ERISA
In November 2021, a California federal court dismissed a suit claiming that LinkedIn Corp. kept underperforming funds in its $817 million retirement fund. The judge in the case, in re: LinkedIn ERISA Litigation, (5:20-cv-05704), U.S. District Court (N.D. Cal.), U.S. District Judge Edward J. Davila, dismissed the proposed class action but with leave to amend and add additional facts. Plan participants Douglas G. Read More
SECURE Act Eliminates Need to Adopt Retirement Plans and ESOPs by the End of 2021 for Tax Deduction Purposes
Before 2020, the IRS historically mandated that an employer must adopt an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP), and any other retirement plan, no later than the end of the first tax year in which the employer wanted to claim a deduction for plan contributions. Effective December 31, 2019, Section 201 of the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act of 2019 (“SECURE Act”) extended this deadline from Read More
Kroger Fights Allegations of Broken Promises to Employees
Quentin and Marie Smith sued Kroger and a union health insurance plan that serves Kroger employees, including Quentin, in an Arkansas state court in July 2021. The suit makes allegations that include breach of contract, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (“ERISA”) violations, and it was removed to federal court in November. As December began, Kroger moved Read More
HHS Announces Final Rule on Civil Monetary Penalties for HIPAA, MSP, and SBC Violations
Effective November 15, 2021, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced a final rule finalizing the provisions of the September 6, 2016, interim final rule that adjusted the maximum civil monetary penalty (CMP) amounts, for inflation, for all agencies within the Department of Health and Human Services. These include penalties that apply to violations of the Health Insurance Portability and Read More
Department of Justice’s 1st Wage-Fixing Case Survives Motion to Dismiss
In December 2020, a federal grand jury returned an indictment charging Neeraj Jindal, the former owner of a therapist staffing company, for participating in a price-fixing conspiracy to lower the rates paid to physical therapists and their assistants in north Texas. The case avoided its first challenge in late November 2021. when a federal district court in Sherman, Texas declined to grant the defendants’ motion to Read More
Court Dismisses Former Employee’s COBRA Claims
In McKenna v. ZO Skin Health, Inc., 2021 WL 4078291 (N.D. Ohio 2021), an employee sued two of her employers and their third party administrators (“TPA”) after she was denied coverage under the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985 (“COBRA”). After a cancer diagnosis, plaintiff Vicki McKenna elected COBRA after being terminated by her employer, PuraCap Pharmaceutical LLC (“PuraCap”). In April 2018, Read More
CMS Rule Requires Vaccinations of Health Care Employees
In November 2021, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released its long-awaited and highly anticipated interim final rule (IFR) requiring health care workers to be vaccinated for the COVID-19 virus. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) also released its emergency temporary standard requiring vaccination or weekly testing for the COVID-19 virus for employers with 100 employees Read More
House Introduces Retirement Reform Bill
The chairman and ranking member of the House Education and Labor Committee has introduced bipartisan legislation that partially overlaps the SECURE Act 2.0. In early November, committee Chairman Bobby Scott (D-VA); Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC), the committee’s ranking Republican; Rep. Mark DeSaulnier (D-CA), Chairman of the Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee; and Rep. Rick Allen Read More
Employer May Terminate Employee After Remedial Action for FMLA Noncompliance
In Watson v. Drexel University, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit ruled that an employer may terminate an employee for taking unauthorized leave after the employer had corrected an earlier mistake in its Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) certification requirements. In Watson, an employee requested authorization for FMLA leave for personal illness after providing the required medical certification. Read More
