Restoration must occur immediately upon the employee's return from leave. Delaying reinstatement violates FMLA unless:

• The employee fails to return on time
• The employee has exhausted their 12-week entitlement
• A legitimate business change has eliminated the position for reasons unrelated to FMLA

Note: This is an excerpt from

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Employers are required to submit Form 941 each quarter. Occasionally, however, errors occur when processing the information to complete the form. If an error is made on a submitted Form 941, it must be corrected. The correction is reported on Form 941-X. In 2009, the IRS introduced a new Form to the 941 series of Forms, Form 941-X. This form is used to report errors on a previously filed Form 941. The Form 941-X replaces Forms 941c ...

Physical and documentary evidence during a workplace or internal investigation must be retained in the same state as when received, and physical evidence needs to have a “chain of custody“ established. Chain of custody refers to the documentation of the collection, custody, control, transfer, analysis, and disposition of evidence. Documentation for evidence must include:

• The conditions

Billing for COBRA premiums involves a formal and consistent process that complies with federal regulations while ensuring that qualified beneficiaries understand their payment obligations.

• Set the COBRA Premium Rate Employers can charge the full cost of the health insurance premium, plus a 2% administrative fee (in other words, 102% of the total premium. For

Employers must treat all disability-related information as confidential, plus share information only on a need-to-know basis (e.g., supervisors if needed to implement accommodation). In other words, do not disclose to coworkers or others why someone is receiving an accommodation. Employers should apply the same process and standards for all ...

• Cost savings of paycards, direct deposit, and plain paper paystubs as opposed to processing paper check stock
• Combined with a direct deposit program, the payment of wages becomes virtually paperless
• Can reduce check fraud
• Can reduce escheat issues
• Reduces the need of employees to take time from work to cash checks
• Reduces lost checks
• Benefit for Human

With regard to terminating COBRA coverage, the employer (or plan administrator) must send a COBRA termination notice to the qualified beneficiary that includes:

• The date COBRA coverage will end
• The reason for termination. Ensuring human resources compliance during this process is a key

Investigative files should be kept separate from the personnel files. Since it is not a personnel file, the investigative records are not included in regular HR related document destruction schedules. These files should also not be made available for employee review. Investigative records may be kept in legal counsel's office or, if that is impracticable, within HR in a separate file cabinet with key access strictly restricted. Generally, not all HR people will have a need to see ...

Employers must assess accommodation requests individually based on the employee's specific functional limitations, the job requirements, and operational realities. Employers must then provide a reasonable accommodation unless it would cause undue hardship (significant difficulty or expense) or would pose a direct threat that cannot be mitigated.

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Employers can terminate COBRA coverage before the maximum coverage period ends only under specific circumstances defined by federal law. These include:

• Failure to pay premiums on a timely

The key areas of worker classification focus on determining whether a person providing services to a business is an employee or an independent contractor - and within those categories, how they are further classified for legal, tax, and benefit purposes.

The Six Key Areas of Worker Classification Include:

Defining Employee vs. Independent Contractor

This is the most critical and common classification question, so here are some

To be a qualified employee under the PWFA, the worker must be able to perform all of the job's essential functions, either now or in the near future. The PWFA regulations defining “essential functions“ adopt the language used in the EEOC's ADA regulations. Thus, essential functions are fundamental ...

Generally speaking, Cafeteria Plans allow employees to pay their share of insurance premiums, certain out-of-pocket medical and dependent care expenses, and certain other benefits with pre-tax dollars versus paying these same expenses with after-tax dollars. Thus, the employee saves federal income taxes and FICA taxes on the total amount paid through a Cafeteria Plan. And, in all states except New Jersey, the employee also saves state ...

To determine a participant's vested account balance, the participant's vesting service must be calculated in one of two ways:

• The actual hours method, or
• The elapsed time method

If actual hours of service are counted, the number of hours of service required for a “year of service“ may not be more than 1,000. If the plan uses the elapsed time method, an employee will be credited with a “year of service“ for each period of

Below are some tips regarding tracking and managing FMLA leave:

• Define how you measure the 12-month period (e.g., calendar year, rolling backward, etc.)
• Carefully track and document intermittent and reduced schedule leave usage. This is a critical area for human resources compliance.
• Ensure supervisors

As part of the organizational complaint procedures for a Internal Investigations, it is also a good best practice to develop a Statement of Complaint document.

A good Statement of Complaint document will ask for important information to clarify a complaint and to identify the level of significance. This will help employers identify the true nature - and the seriousness - of the ...

• It is a private-sector employer with 50 or more employees in 20 or more workweeks in the current or previous calendar year
• It is a public agency (regardless of the number of employees)
• It is a public or private elementary or secondary school (regardless of the number of employees)

• Voluntary or involuntary termination of employment (except for gross misconduct)