The U.S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division (WHD) released a new fact sheet on break time in the workplace for nursing mothers under the FLSA. The fact sheet provides general information on the break time requirements for nursing mothers in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). These new requirements took effect when the PPACA was signed into law on March 23, 2010. The new FLSA requirement of break time for nursing mothers to express breast milk does not preempt State laws that provide greater protections to employees.
The new fact sheet provides general requirements for employers. Employers are now required to provide “reasonable break time for an employee to express breast milk for her nursing child for one year after the child’s birth each time such employee has need to express the milk.” In addition to this, employers are required to provide “a place, other than a bathroom, that is shielded from a view and free from intrusion from coworkers and the public, which may be used by an employee to express breast milk.”
The new fact sheet also details the time and location of breaks for nursing mothers to express breast milk. The fact sheet states that “…employers are required to provide a reasonable amount of break time to express milk as frequently as needed by the nursing mother. The frequency of breaks needed to express milk as well as the duration of each break will likely vary.” Since there is no set time for the length of breaks, or how often an employee may take these breaks, it is important to try and be flexible and accommodating and allow the employee to take breaks as needed.
The location that the company or organization provides for the nursing mother to express breast milk must be functional as a space for expressing breast milk, and may not be a bathroom even if it is a private bathroom. However, the space the company or organization provides for the nursing mother does not have to function solely as a space for expressing breast milk, but it must be available when it is needed in order to meet the statutory requirements.
Employers are not required under the FLSA to provide breaks to nursing mothers who are exempt from the overtime pay requirements of Section 7, but businesses should be aware that they may be obligated to provide such breaks under State laws. In addition to this, employers with fewer than fifty employees are not subject to the FLSA break time requirement if compliance with the provision would impose an undue hardship.
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Many small businesses rely heavily on part-time workers, but now having one too many part-time workers could make some small businesses subject to large penalties. The healthcare reform law states that “employers have to offer affordable health insurance to full-time workers or pay a penalty of up to $3,000 per worker, starting in 2014.” Businesses with fifty or fewer workers are exempt from the penalties.
A company’s worker total is determined by combining both full-time and full-time equivalent workers (FTEs), and this is where it starts to get tricky for small businesses. Every 120 part-time hours worked per month equals one Full Time Equivalent worker, no matter how many employees work those 120 hours. For example, if your business has ten part-time employees that work a total of 480 hours in one month, that is equal to four FTE workers. If your business has at least 46 full-time workers, and then have to add the four extra FTE workers to that, your business now has a total of fifty full-time workers. Which means your business would have to offer health insurance to workers or risk facing the $3,000 per full-time worker penalty.
This means that small businesses, such as retail stores and restaurants, who tend to have a high number of part-time workers need to keep close track of the number of hours being worked by part-time employees. For more information read this article. HR Made Simple Users can log in to access additional materials.
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Labor and Treasury have issued regulations to implement a New Patient’s Bill of Rights under the Affordable Care Act to assist children (and eventually adults) with pre-existing conditions gain healthcare coverage and keep it. It will also protect the individual’s choice of doctors, and end lifetime limits on healthcare. The regulations released detail a set of protections that apply to healthcare coverage starting on or after September 23, 2010, six months after the enactment of the Affordable Care Act.
“The rule we are announcing today will allow employers to make routine and modest adjustments to co-payments, deductibles and employer contributions to their employees’ premiums without forfeiting grandfather status. This flexibility will encourage employers to continue offering health coverage to their employees and help to ensure coverage for all Americans,” said Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis.
These new protections will apply to nearly all health insurance plans. Limits on pre-existing conditions and annual limits will not apply to existing “grandfathered” plans offering individual coverage. For more details including the Fact Sheet and Interim Final Regulations, please visit the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services website.
Do you own or work for a small business? If so, do you have a Human Resource Department? If the answer is no, you might want to reevaluate and consider making Human Resources a priority. A new study released last week by the U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform (LIR) showed that small businesses shoulder a large chunk of the nation’s tort liability costs, having paid approximately $105.4 billion in 2008.
The study done by the LIR, called the Tort Liability Costs for Small Businesses study, also found that small businesses, defined as those with $10 million or less in annual revenue, collectively paid $35.6 billion out-of-pocket rather than through insurance. In addition to this, litigation liability costs are expected to continue to grow, and it was forecasted that by 2011, small businesses will be paying $152 billion in tort costs.
Over the past 15 years, small businesses have created 64% of all net new jobs in the United States, so increasing liability, litigation and lawsuit costs for small businesses is coming at a time when it could really hurt future job growth. ILR President, Lisa Rickard said “As America struggles out of this current economic downturn, this study shows that our lawsuit system continues to be a drag on job-creating small businesses.”
If you are a small business owner, or just work for one, it would be a good idea to reevaluate and reconsider the value of an effective Human Resources program. HR Made Simple is an easy way to stay in compliance with the law, and provides the user with all necessary documents for best practices and paperwork for human resources compliance. For more information visit HR Made Simple.
ILR seeks to promote civil justice reform through legislative, political, judicial, and educational activities at the national, state, and local levels.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is the world’s largest business federation representing the interests of more than 3 million businesses of all sizes, sectors, and regions, as well as state and local chambers and industry associations.
Having clearly stated and specific policies in your company’s employee handbook is essential. Many companies have used a general ethics policy in the past, but without clear and specific policies it may be hard to fire an employee for violating an unwritten or “general ethics” policy. One specific policy that has attracted attention is a policy on Personal Internet Use at Work. In one instance, not having a Personal Internet Use at Work policy lead to an employee filing, and winning, a wrongful termination suit.
While performing routine maintenance, the IT staff at a Fire Department found that an employee had been watching “inappropriate” videos at work. They were not pornographic in nature, but they contained profanity and were violent. An investigation ensued, and soon after, the employee was fired. The employee sued for wrongful termination, on the grounds that the department never told employees that they were not allowed to watch Internet videos at work.
In this particular case, the Fire Department only had a general ethics policy, which stated that employees could be fired for “malfeasance, misconduct in office, gross neglect of duty, gross immorality or habitual drunkenness” (Narisi 2010). The Fire Department claimed that watching inappropriate videos in the workplace constituted malfeasance, but the judge did not agree. In this case, the judge found that there were too many gray areas in the policy, and that specifically it did not mention computer use. In addition to this, using a word such as “inappropriate,” without defining it, leaves the door open for personal interpretation of what is and is not inappropriate.
So, the judge sided with the employee and the Fire Department lost. The Judge did acknowledge that the employee had accessed videos on his work computer that may be deemed offensive, but that was irrelevant to the case because the company’s Code of Ethics was deemed too vague to cover the employee’s use of technology. The Code of Ethics had no specific guidelines for what would be deemed “inappropriate” and did not specify how workplace computers may or may not be used.
What can you take away from this? It is important to always be as specific as possible with employee policies. Another best practice would be to develop a clear and comprehensive employee handbook that covers everything from employee computer use, to personal auto use and vacation time. HR Made Simple Users should log in and search Employee Handbook Policies. Or, visit HR Resources Now to download fully customizable and legally compliant Employee Handbook Policies.
