Expert Compliance Insights & Tips for Businesses

October 12, 2009

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IRS to Audit 5,000 Random Employers Beginning Next Month

If you've been underpaying and/or under-reporting your company's payroll taxes, the IRS wants to know--and collect what's due. With the annual "tax gap" between what's owed and what's paid estimated at $290 billion, the Internal Revenue Service is siccing its agents on 5,000 randomly selected employers beginning in November 2009 as much for a learning lesson as a collections effort. T...

October 9, 2009

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House & Senate Vote to Extend E-Verify

This week a House-Senate panel reconciling budget measures voted to extend for three years the E-Verify online employment eligibility system. At the same time, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) formally withdrew the "no match" safe harbor rule of the Bush administration. The Bush-era "no match" rule gave employers three months to straighten out mismatched employee So...

October 7, 2009

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Democrats Seek to Overturn Supreme Court's Age Discrimination Ruling

EFCA Gross v. F.B.L. Financial

Business cheered the Supreme Court's decision in Gross v. F.B.L. Financial Services that set the bar higher for age discrimination claims by employees. Prior to Gross, employees need merely show in court that age was one factor in their adverse job decision (a firing or passing over for promotion, for instance). Now they must show that it was the main factor. Failing that proof, a trial cannot ...

October 7, 2009

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Faking a Sick Day? You've Got a 15% Chance of Getting Fired

fake illnesses sick leave

About one-third of all employees who call in sick are faking it, a percentage that has held steady over the years. However, the chances of getting fired for abusing sick-day privileges are falling, down from 18 percent a year ago to 15 percent today, according to a survey by CareerBuilder.com, a jobs site. The number of U.S. employers who check up on absent workers declined to 29 percent this ...

October 6, 2009

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Feds Clarify Rules on Contractor E-Verify Mandate

E-Verify E-Verify contractor rule

The E-Verify online employee status system faced two new hurdles in September. On Sept. 8, the E-Verify Contractor Rule was set to go into effect but faced last-minute court challenges, and on Sept. 31 funding for the system itself was in danger of expiring. On the first issue, the courts sided with the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) in allowing the contractor mandate...

October 2, 2009

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Failure to Display Labor Law Posters Costs Hotel Big in Court Case

Here's a case that hinged on the statute of limitations for employment-based lawsuits--and how failure to post a basic federal and state labor law poster cost The Claridge Hotel in Atlantic CIty big time. Two Chinese national employees were dismissed by the hotel after one, a male chef, accused the other, a female room attendant, of sexual advances. After eventually speaking to lawyers, both fi...

October 1, 2009

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Sears Hit With Largest ADA Fine Ever at $6.2 Million

Sears Holdings Inc., without admitting any wrongdoing, has settled an Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) claim for $6.2 million, the largest single fine in history according to the enforcing agency, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). The EEOC claims the Hoffman Estates, Ill.-based retailer fired hundreds of employees who took workers’ compensation leave after being in...

September 30, 2009

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Majority of Workers Say Employers Lack H1N1 Preparations

Worse, nearly 85 percent of those surveyed by Mansfield Communications said they feel pressured to come to work even if they come down with the H1N1 swine flu because of the tough economy. Nearly 70 percent also said their employers have communicated nothing and made no preparations for a possible swine flu resurgence. On a more positive note, 80 percent said they felt knowledgeable about what...

September 29, 2009

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DOL Recovers $1.4 Billion in Lost Wages Over Eight Years

The Department of Labor (DOL) and its Wage and Hour Division (WHD) recovered some $1.4 billion in unpaid overtime and other wages in the eight-year period ending in 2008, and that was under the Bush administration, which has been accused of lax enforcement by the incoming Obama administration and its DOL secretary, Hilda Solis. Accordingly, Secretary Solis has beefed up the ranks of the WH...

September 28, 2009

30 view(s)

Baby Boomers Turn to Social Security When Downsized

The Social Security system has been deluged by unemployed Baby Boomers--many of whom would still be working in better times--who are signing up for retirement benefits at a record clip. Social Security applications are up 23 percent this year, and disability applications up 20 percent. As a result, the system projects deficits of $10 billion in 2010 and $9 billion in 2011. Not to worry, however...

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