[Guidance Overview]
Overview of COVID-19 Law and Guidance for Health and Welfare Plans
"This article provides an overview of significant COVID-19 legislation and guidance related to employer-sponsored health and welfare benefit plans ... Some of these changes are mandatory for group health plans. Other are optional. Employers should carefully review these rules to determine any compliance obligations as well as any opportunities to benefit their businesses and respective employees."
Hall Benefits Law, via Society for Human Resource Management [SHRM]; membership may be required to view article
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[Guidance Overview]
Six Reasons When FFCRA Rules Allow Coronavirus Paid Leave
"[The DOL] has revised the rules for emergency paid sick leave and family medical leaves, outlining six reasons they can be used. They apply to public entities with more than one employee and private organizations with fewer than 500 employees. Those with fewer than 50 employees may be exempt from these specific leaves for child care-related reasons only."
HUB International
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[Guidance Overview]
DOL Issues New FMLA Notices and Forms, Seeks Input on Potential Changes to FMLA Regulations
"These new model documents tend to tweak the old forms around the edges, and as a result, they're more likely to elicit a shrug of the shoulders than a high five.... Along with its new notice and forms, the DOL also published a 'request for information' asking employers and employees for their feedback on potential changes to the FMLA regulations. Initially, the DOL generally asked what employees and employers 'like to see changed in the FMLA regulations' to better put into effect everyone's rights and obligations under the FMLA? But then DOL drilled down further."
FMLA Insights
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[Guidance Overview]
New FMLA Forms Offer Some Improvements, But Don't Address FFCRA Leave
"On July 16, 2020, the [DOL] released an updated suite of FMLA forms for employers.... [T]he forms are designed to be simpler and easier to understand and complete, substituting check boxes for some written responses and supporting electronic completion and signatures.... [T]he new model forms do not address the paid sick leave or expanded FMLA leave requirements of the [FFCRA]. The Department has not published a model leave form for use with the FFCRA.... The Department has not updated the 'General Notice' poster, which employers are required to post in each workplace and distribute to employees[.]"
Franczek P.C.
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[Guidance Overview]
An Employer's Guide to Managing PTO Donation Requests in the COVID-19 Age
"[A] number of employees have expressed to their employers an interest in donating their own PTO to help co-workers and community members adversely impacted by COVID-19. Employers have the opportunity to harness this collective spirit of generosity with a special leave-based donation program designed specifically for COVID-19, or with traditional approaches adapted for this specific circumstance. If you want to provide employees with an opportunity to donate leave to assist pandemic victims, there are several options."
Fisher Phillips
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[Guidance Overview]
Colorado Enacts Legislation Requiring Employers to Provide Employees with Paid Sick Leave
"Colorado has enacted the Healthy Families and Workplaces Act (HFWA) to require employers to provide employees with up to six days, or up to 48 hours, of earned paid sick leave. Employers with at least 16 employees must begin providing earned paid sick leave on January 1, 2021. All employers, regardless of size, must begin providing earned paid sick leave effective January 1, 2022."
Jackson Lewis P.C.
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[Guidance Overview]
3-in-1 Statewide Paid Sick Leave Law (Beyond COVID-19) Enacted In Colorado
"After multiple revisions in both the House and Senate, the Healthy Families and Workplaces Act, which also accounts for the current COVID-19 pandemic and potential future public health emergencies, was ... signed into law by Governor Jared Polis on July 14, 2020. While the general PSL aspects of the Act do not begin until at least January 1, 2021, other COVID-19 related aspects appear to begin immediately."
Seyfarth Shaw LLP
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DOL Proposes Revisions to Model FMLA Forms
"In addition to general layout and formatting modifications, other proposed changes to the model forms include: [1] adding additional information on the substitution of paid leave and concurrent leave usage on the Notice of Eligibility and Rights & Responsibilities; [2] reducing the number of questions on the certification forms requiring written responses, and replacing them with statements that can be verified by checking a box; [3] reorganizing the layout of medical certification forms to more efficiently determine whether a condition qualifies as a serious health condition; and [4] clarifying the circumstances in which follow up information may be obtained from healthcare providers."
Proskauer
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Allowing Cross-Plan Offsets Could Mean Danger for Plan Fiduciaries
"In light of these recent lawsuits, and especially the DOL's stated belief it is a violation of ERISA, plan sponsors should take time to review their service agreements with carriers and TPAs to determine if off-setting is part of their overpayment recovery method. While recovery of overpayments is a valid fiduciary interest for plans, plan sponsors should discuss other possible methods or compromises with their service providers that do not result in cross-plan offsets."
Graydon
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Beware a Delay in Depositing Participant Benefit Plan Contributions
"Most plans do not have a trust to hold participant contributions.... [E]mployers would be well advised to take the following steps to ensure their ability to utilize the DOL non-enforcement policy: [1] Make sure participant contributions are used to pay benefits, insurance premiums, and/or plan expenses within 90 days of when they are collected from participants.... [2] Check your cafeteria plan to see if it includes language discussing collecting COBRA or other after-tax contributions."
HUB International
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Benefits in General
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COVID-19 Resource Guide: Employee Benefits Considerations for Reopening in 2020
Outline provides action steps for various types of benefit plans. Topics include: [1] Onboarding furloughed employees; [2] Onboarding employees who have been laid off; [3] Other health and welfare plan considerations; [4] Other qualified plan considerations; [5] Reporting and disclosure considerations; [6] Fiduciary and governance issues; [7] Planning for remainder of 2020 and for 2021.
Troutman Sanders
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ERISA Remedies Could Increase After Recent Supreme Court Ruling
"One of the last cases decided this term by the Supreme Court ... addressed the issue of disgorgement of profits as equitable relief available to the SEC.... Like Section 502(a)(3) of ERISA, which permits a benefit claimant to bring an action 'to obtain other appropriate equitable relief,' the Securities Exchange Act also lacks a definition of the meaning of equitable relief." [Liu v. SEC, No. 18-1501 (S. Ct. Jun. 22, 2020)]
DeBofsky Sherman Casciari Reynolds P.C.
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