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

Section 2715 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, as amended by the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act (“PPACA”), mandates that group health plans provide a summary of benefits and coverage (“SBC”) to all participants and beneficiaries. The SBC is a brief description intended to provide a consistent and accurate description of benefits and coverage so that participants can easily compare different plans. On August 22, 2011, the Departments of Labor (“DOL”), Health and Human Services (“HHS”), and Treasury (“IRS”) (collectively, the “Departments”) issued proposed regulations to implement the SBC requirement, along with a proposed SBC template, instructions, and a uniform glossary of key terms.

The PPACA states that plans will be required to furnish SBCs beginning March 23, 2012. However, the Departments stated in their seventh set of PPACA frequently asked questions (“FAQs”) that plans are not required to comply with the SBC requirement until final regulations are issued. The FAQs also provided assurances that the effective date of the final regulations will afford sufficient time to comply with the SBC requirements.

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In a little-recognized effort to generate “mandate relief” associated with its recently-enacted “Tax Cap,” the New York Legislature amended General Municipal Law (“GML”) § 72-c to enable more municipalities to recover expenses related to the initial training of their police and peace officers in the event that such officers decide to transfer to another municipality within their first three years of service.

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Last week, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a Southern District of New York decision denying IBM Corporation's application for a preliminary injunction to enforce a broad non-competition agreement and to prevent a former high-level executive from working for Hewlett-Packard.  The case illustrates the high standard under New York law to obtain preliminary injunctions to enforce non-competition agreements.

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Over the past couple of decades, there has been much debate over whether arbitration agreements can be used to prevent employees from asserting discrimination and other employment-related claims in court. Lost in this debate, however, is a simpler and perhaps more reliable means of managing an employer’s risk: a jury waiver. A jury waiver is nothing more than a contractual provision in which an employee waives his or her right to a trial by jury in a legal proceeding brought against his or her employer. Such a provision is most commonly found in an employment agreement that is entered into when an employee is hired, but the agreement can be entered into at other times, such as when the employee obtains a raise or promotion.

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