New York Labor and Employment Law Report : New York Employment Lawyer & Attorney : Bond Schoeneck & King Law Firm : NY Labor Relations, Employee Benefits

The Departments of Health and Human Services (“HHS”), Labor (“DOL”), and Treasury (“IRS”) recently issued additional guidance regarding the implementation of certain Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (“PPACA”) requirements, including: the rapidly approaching deadline for employers planning to apply for early-retiree funding from HHS; additional details on implementing the grandfathered plan rules; and the procedures for reporting the cost of employer-provided health coverage to employees. The DOL has also provided updated information on the status of the automatic enrollment requirement for large employers.

Deadline For Early-Retiree Health Insurance Funding
Pursuant to the PPACA, $5 billion was appropriated to establish a temporary program for partial reimbursement of the cost of providing health coverage to early retirees (including the spouses, dependents, and surviving spouses of early retirees). The program, which was implemented on June 1, 2010, began accepting applications on June 29, 2010. On March 31, 2011, HHS announced that it will stop accepting applications as of May 5, 2011, based on the amount of remaining program funds and the rate at which the funding is being disbursed. A copy of the application and instructions can be found at http://www.errp.gov. All applications must be physically received by HHS (i.e., not postmarked) on or before May 5, 2011.
 

• Email This
• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks
• Share Link

Designated Freedom of Information Law ("FOIL") officers in governmental agencies, such as school districts and municipalities, often have extensive experience responding to FOIL requests. Knowing that FOIL strongly favors the disclosure of agency records, they may overlook statutory exemptions to disclosure. But, a recent case decided by the New York State Court of Appeals, NYSUT v. Brighter Choice Charter School, shows that the exemptions are alive and well -- particularly when a union seeks personal information about unrepresented employees.

FOIL (Public Officers Law §87 et seq.) was created to ensure the public's right to agency records and imposes a broad standard of open disclosure. FOIL's goal is to help the public make informed choices with respect to the direction and scope of governmental activities. It is this purpose that guides the general rule that all records of an agency are presumptively available for public inspection and copying. Nonetheless, several statutory exemptions are set forth in Public Officers Law §87(2) that permit a responding agency to withhold requested records. To ensure the public has maximum access to government records, these statutory exemptions are narrowly interpreted and the agency invoking the exemption bears the burden of demonstrating that requested material fits squarely within the ambit of the exemption.

In NYSUT v. Brighter Choice, a group of charter schools objected to disclosure of certain information about their employees requested by New York State United Teachers ("NYSUT"). In 2007, NYSUT submitted FOIL requests to Brighter Choice and five other Charter Schools in the Albany area. The request sought extensive information about the teachers and instructors, including their names and home addresses. The Charter Schools provided title and salary information, but objected to the request for the names and home addresses of its employees. NYSUT eventually dropped its request for home addresses. This left only the Charter School's denial of the union's request for the full names of the employees in dispute.
 

• Email This
• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks
• Share Link

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has been making significant efforts to educate the Latino workforce regarding safe work practices, OSHA’s safety and health regulations, and workers’ rights. This initiative began in force in April of 2010, when OSHA held the first National Action Summit for Latino Worker Health and Safety in Houston, Texas. Over 1,000 people attended the summit, the stated goal of which was “[r]educing injuries and illnesses among Latino workers by enhancing knowledge of their workplace rights and improving their ability to exercise those rights.” Workshops included topics such as “Innovative Partnerships and Effective Education for Latino Workers: Focus on Latino Construction Workers,” and “Workers’ Rights Under OSHA and DOL: Focus on Construction Hazards.”

Since that initial national summit, OSHA has held several regional summits, including one in northern New Jersey in July, 2010, and another in New York City in November. The latter summit featured a 15-minute skit entitled “How to File an OSHA Complaint.” In February, 2011, OSHA held a summit in Oakland, California, that was featured on the evening Telemundo and Univision newscasts throughout the entire San Francisco Bay Area. Future OSHA summits are scheduled for southern New Jersey and Philadelphia in April. The April 10, New Jersey summit is entitled “Making a Difference: Learn about Your Worker Rights and How to Voice Concerns When Those Rights are Violated.”
 

• Email This
• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks
• Share Link

Eight days before the Wage Theft Prevention Act goes into effect, the New York State Department of Labor finally released the notification templates and related information which will assist New York employers in complying with the Act. The documents were posted on the Department’s website Friday.

The Department issued notification templates for the following groups of employees: (a) Hourly Rate Employees; (b) Multiple Hourly Rate Employees; (c) Employees Paid a Weekly Rate or a Salary for a Fixed Number of Hours (40 or Fewer in a Week); (d) Employees Paid a Salary for Varying Hours, Day Rate, Piece Rate, Flat Rate, or Other Non-Hourly Basis; (e) Prevailing Rate and Other Jobs; and (f) Exempt Employees. The templates are available here.

The Department also issued Guidelines for Written Notice of Rates of Pay and Regular Payday, as well as instructions related to the templates. While the Guidelines state that dual language templates are available in Chinese, Haitian-Creole, Korean, Polish, Russian, and Spanish, as of this writing, only the Chinese, Korean and Spanish templates are available.

Finally, the Department also issued a document titled, “Frequently Asked Questions About the Wage Theft Prevention Act,” which provides answers to many of the most common questions employers have about the Act.
 

• Email This
• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks
• Share Link