April 2015, Page 5 Archive

Just when HR pros were starting to lose hope the EEOC would ever issue any guidance and rules on the impact ADA and GINA have on wellness programs, the agency made a major announcement.   

After months of inaction, the EEOC just sent a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) about wellness programs to the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to get an OK.

This marks the first action step in the official regulatory process.

Ire of the industry

Following a string of high profile wellness plan lawsuits filed by the EEOC, the benefits industry and several prominent business associations have had some harsh criticism for the agency.

The lawsuits, which HR Benefits Alert had covered in greater detail previously, each center around companies with “involuntary” wellness programs that the EEOC claims violates the ADA or GINA or both.

Specifically, in each of these lawsuits, the agency claims the wellness programs aren’t truly voluntary either because of “dire consequences” the program imposes on workers who choose not to participate or because of health assessments which are not “job-related and consistent with business necessity” (because they were preventive in nature) and violate the ADA’s rules regarding employee medical exams and inquiries.

The major complaint about the lawsuits from the benefits world: How can the EEOC possibly sue employers for involuntary wellness programs when there isn’t any official guidance on what the agency considers involuntary?

A chance to weigh in

According to the press release, the EEOC’s proposed rule would amend the regs that apply to the equal employment provisions of the ADA — and address the interaction between Title I of the ADA and financial incentives that are part of wellness plans offered through firms’ group health plans.

If the OMB approves the proposed rule, it will be published in the Federal Register for a 60-day public notice and comment period.

That means HR pros will have a chance to weigh in on the EEOC’s rule.

This EEOC announcement comes on the heels of new legislation introduced to confirm employers’ legal rights to offer financial incentives to staffers who voluntarily complete wellness programs or make healthy lifestyle changes.

So even though we still have a while until the EEOC’s final rule is published, at least employers have a concrete idea of what’s going to happen and when.

For more HR News, please visit: Finally! EEOC issues guidance on what wellness programs can and can’t do

Source: News from HR Morning

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For more HR News, please visit: Managing Millennials: Engaging with the Newest Generation of Workers

Source: News from HR Morning

Wondering what’s become of the FLSA overtime revisions the feds have promised to issue? Don’t worry, you haven’t missed them. The DOL just keeps pushing back their release. 

Initially, after President Obama issued an executive order telling the DOL to rewrite the nation’s overtime exemption rules, the agency assigned a date of proposed rulemaking of November 2014 to the regulations.

But shortly before that soft deadline, the agency said the proposed revisions were “months away.”

The feds then said the nation could expect the proposed rules sometime in February. But February’s long since been in the rear-view mirror, and still we’ve seen nothing.

So what’s going on?

In a hearing held by the House Education and Workforce Committee to discuss President Obama’s 2015 budget proposal for the DOL, the agency’s Secretary Thomas Perez provided testimony that touched on a number of topics, including the proposed rewrites to the overtime rules.

While being somewhat tongue-in-cheek, Perez said that his agency is “working overtime” to get the proposed changes on the table, but nothing was imminent. However, he did indicate that they could be made available “sometime this spring.”

Perez also offered no clues as to what the revisions may look like, but he did indicate that the salary threshold would be a point of emphasis.

Threshold to rise significantly

As you know, the current minimum salary a worker has to be paid to be exempt from overtime is $455 per week or $23,660 per year. Well, the Obama Administration and Perez have openly said that threshold is no longer relevant in today’s economic environment.

As a result, it’s going to increase and, most likely, pretty significantly.

Earlier this year The Huffington Post reported that Ross Eisenbrey, vice president of the Economic Policy Institute, an organization that holds a lot of sway with Democratic policymakers, told the news outlet that his talks with White House officials have lead him to believe the threshold will be increased to somewhere around the $42,000 mark.

The Post’s report said that, according to Eisenbrey’s calculations, a $42,000 threshold would cover 35% of salaried workers. That’s a far cry from the 12% of salaried workers covered by the existing threshold. Still it wouldn’t make as many employees OT-eligible as some smaller firms had originally feared.

Lawmakers on Capitol Hill had been estimating the threshold would increase to $51,000 — an amount that had been advocated by the likes of Vice President Joe Biden and former chief economist Jared Bernstein. That threshold would make somewhere in the neighborhood of 47% of salaried workers OT-eligible.

Stay tuned: When the proposed rules are issued, we’ll have a full breakdown.

For more HR News, please visit: What’s going on with those FLSA overtime revisions?

Source: News from HR Morning