Legislative Updates

Resources for Performance can help you interpret and implement policies and procedures to help you address the significant legislative requirements for your business.  Please remember to Contact Us for more information.

ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act)

The ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act), as recently amended (as the "ADA Amendments Act of 2008"), effective January 1, 2009, to expand the term "disability" and significantly increase the number of persons protected by the ADAAA.

COBRA

The new COBRA (Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act) subsidy rules, which were introduced by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA - the new stimulus package) provides that certain individuals who have the right to continue group health coverage because of an involuntary termination that occurred (or occurs) between Sept. 1, 2008, and Dec. 31, 2009, may qualify for up to nine months of assistance in paying for that coverage.

EFCA / NLRMA

EFCA (Employee's Free Choice Act) is also known as the "card check" bill, is a top legislative priority for labor unions. It would amend the National Labor Relations Act and eliminate secret-ballot workplace elections. Union representation would instead be decided through a card check process; unions would be certified automatically if a majority of an employer's workers sign union cards.  Legislation would also mandate that, once a union is certified, the law would require arbitration between the union and the employer f a voluntary agreement for a union contract cannot be reached within 120 days.

In March of 2009, alternative legislation to the EFCA surfaced, called the NLRMA (National Labor Relations Modernization Act, to reach a compromise between labor and management interests in the EFCA.  It would only cover employers of 20 or more in teh bargaining unit, and would not eliminate the requirement for a secret ballot election, thus avoiding the EFCA's controversial card check provision.

There will still be much debate as to whether or not the EFCA will pass, but the keys to your business success in remaining union free are management training, not only to make your managere aware of the changes in the law, but also to make them aware of the specific arguments that are used by union organizers to get cards signed, and the sort of manager behavior that will make it more likely that will make it more likely for those arguments to fail.  We can also assist you in the review of your current policies and procedures to make sure that you have in place the practices that will make it more difficult for unions to succeed, and that will assist your employees in having a "voice" in your organization.

FMLA

There are several new provisions to the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) which could result in additional administrative burden to employers First, is the ability for an employee to support a request for leave to care for a covered service member with a serious injury or illness. Since there is a "single 12-month period" for military caregiver leave to begin, the employee could have two leave years running under this new rule.

HIPPA

HIPPA  imposes significant new Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) privacy and security requirements on health plans, business associates and other vendors of personal health records.

I-9's

Employers are no longer allowed to accept outdated forms of identification from employees. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) wants to "ensure that documents presented for use in the Form I-9 process must be valid and reliably establish both identity and employment authorization," This change takes into account the limits placed by their issuing authorities. If a document does not contain an expiration date, such as a Social Security card, it is considered unexpired.

The I-9 form was recently revised on August 7, 2009.