Articles by Girish Anand

June 10, 2011
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'Close Family Member' v. 'Mere Acquaintance' in Discrimination Claims

The Supreme Court, in overturning a federal court, has clarified discrimination claims involving the unique circumstance in which a "close family member"—in this case, a fiancé—is terminated because of actions by another family member, in this case, the fiancée. The case in question was Thompson v. North American Stainless.  Thompson was terminated after...
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June 8, 2011
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HHS Moves to Monitor, Regulate Health Care Premiums

Health care premium protection is on its way. Since 1999, the cost of health insurance coverage for a family of four has climbed 131 percent. Many times, insurance companies have been able to raise rates without explaining their actions to regulators or the public or justifying the reasons for their high premiums. In most cases, consumers receive little or no information about proposed premium ...
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June 7, 2011
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Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plan Gets More Affordable, Accessible

HHS PCIP
For Americans with pre-existing conditions, finding affordable, guaranteed, unrestricted health care just got easier and cheaper, thanks to a federal initiative. When Congress passed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) in 2010, the issue of health insurance for those with pre-existing health conditions was dealt with in two ways: First, when PPACA is fully implemented on Jan....
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June 3, 2011
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DOL Inspector General Criticizes OSHA in Congressional Report

The Office of Inspector General (OIG) for the Department of Labor (DOL) has issued its Semiannual Report to Congress for the six-month period ending March 31, 2011, taking aiming at OSHA for its "inability to best target its resources and measure the impact of its efforts." The report is based in part on an OIG audit of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration that found that...
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June 1, 2011
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EEOC to Extend Existing Record-Keeping Requirements to GINA-Covered Entities

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is publishing a Notice of Proposed Rule Making (NPRM) in the Federal Register tomorrow (June 2, 2011) to extend the record-keeping requirements of the Civil Rights Act of 1967 and the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990 to entitles covered by Title II of the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA). Title II of GINA protects j...
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May 31, 2011
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EBSA Set to Extend Start Date for Fee Disclosure Rules

Following an announcement in February of its intent to push back the applicability date for two new fee disclosure rules. the Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) took public commentary (mostly favorable) and now appears ready to publish the extension in the Federal Register tomorrow (June 1, 2011). The original applicability date was set for July 16, 2011, for plan years beginning ...
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May 27, 2011
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Maine Set to Relax Work Rules for 16-17-Year-Olds in School

Maine child labor laws
Maine has passed legislation, which the governor is expected to sign, that will allow students aged 16 and 17 to work six hours a day after school ends for a maximum of 24 hours a week. Additionally, work must cease by 10:15 p.m. if school is in session the next day. An earlier version that would've removed all restrictions failed to survive debate. “In this case Maine has had the mos...
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May 27, 2011
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Connecticut to Become First State With Paid Sick Leave Law

paid sick leave
The Connecticut Senate this week passed—and the governor is expected to sign—legislation mandating five annual days of sick leave for "service workers," which is an extremely and confusing category according to legal experts who have examined the wording of the law. Interestingly, the bill exempts the YMCA and all manufacturers, but requires employers to determine on their...
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May 26, 2011
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OSHA Cuts Some Reporting Requirements

David Michaels OSHA
The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) today announced the forthcoming release of a final rule that streamlines and simplifies standards while reducing employer burdens. The rule, which soon will be published in the Federal Register, will help keep OSHA standards up-to-date and better enable employers to comply with their regulatory obligations. ...
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May 25, 2011
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Auto-Enrollment Pushes 401(k) Participation to Record Level

401(k)s
After Congress passed legislation in 2006 to make it easier for businesses to auto-enroll new employees in their companies' 401(k) defined-contribution plans,  the overall participation rate has gone up to 75.8 percent from 67.2 percent in 2005, according to a study to Aon Hewitt Inc. Though 60 percent of the 120 companies analyzed are now offering auto-enrollment, up from just 24 perc...
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Practical articles on HR, Safety, compliance, and people operations—written for real businesses, not legal textbooks.

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