News and Updates
Category: FMLA
Department of Labor Ramps Up Audits
The Department of Labor (DOL) will once again be on the prowl for both FMLA and Wage & Hour violations in the coming year – especially in the logistics and warehousing industries. Employers across all industries saw an uptick of audits back in 2014, when DOL made good on their promise to increase the frequency of investigations. There was a notable decline in these audits during the last administration, but expect to see them start ramping back up – and be ready! We’ve often been told by employers, “We just let employees take what they need when they need it.” This usually means, “We don’t really track unpaid leave.” If you’re a small, private employer offering FMLA-adjacent leave out of the goodness of your heart - no harm, no foul. If you’re a public employer, or a private employer with more than 50 full time employees within a 75 mile radius – that lax approach won’t cut it when the government comes calling. Here are some good questions to help determine how compliant your business is: Do FMLA regulations apply to your organization? Do you have a written FMLA policy in place? Does the policy address/define: eligibility requirements, call-in procedures, employee obligations & rights, medical certification process and outside work restrictions while on leave? Do you have legally compliant FMLA forms in place? Is your FMLA poster displayed somewhere prominen
How SuretyHR Fits Into the Spooner Family
You may have noticed some of the SuretyHR content looks a lot like the content published on Spooner Inc’s website and LinkedIn. Maybe you also picked up on our employees having multiple logos on their emails, or you might have both Surety and Spooner business cards for the same employee. We get plenty of questions about this, so we want to help you make sense of it all. Surety HR is part of the Spooner Risk Control family of companies. Spooner Inc (our TPA) and Spooner Medical Administrators (our MCO) both have long and storied histories of helping employers navigate the claimant-favoring, monopolistic Ohio workers’ compensation system. We’ve saved thousands of companies hundreds of thousands of dollars, with some even into the millions with our claims and program management. As Ohio BWC continued making changes to programs, eligibility and inflating administrative costs, we found that offering solutions for only our state-fund and self-insured clients wasn’t enough. Enter SuretyHR, our professional employer organization (PEO). We began building the departments that would make up Surety HR in 2015, with the addition of payroll services. By 2017, we had added in-house legal counsel, HR experts and additional support to our existing teams handling workers’ comp, safety, unemployment, and absence management. In September 2019, we were granted self-insured status by Ohio BWC, which greatly increased the amount of savings we could
Outsourcing FMLA May Be the Break Your HR Department Needs Right Now
FMLA has been maligned by HR departments for years, not only because of the amount of work involved – but also the amount of expertise. Do you ever feel like your management team shouldn’t be the ones determining if a claim submitted actually qualifies? Throwing COVID-related leave into the mix didn’t help, either. Private companies that employ at least 50 workers (within a 75 mile radius), and public employers regardless of size are required to offer FMLA – 12 weeks unpaid leave during a 12 month period. While many question its value, considering the leave is unpaid – it was put in place to protect the jobs of those experiencing one of the following conditions: • Birth or adoption of a child • Care of a spouse, child or parent with a serious health condition • A serious health condition that renders the employee unable to complete their essential duties • A qualifying emergency related to a spouse, child or parent being on active military duty Non-compliance not only puts you on the radar of the Department of Labor (which could result in major fines), but could also expose you to private lawsuits from disgruntled employees. We hear a lot of businesses say, “We jus
Surety HR: Not Your Average PEO
When we talk to prospects about Surety HR, our self-insured PEO (professional employer organization), we get a lot of very different reactions - confusion, curiosity, blank stares and occasionally – a crossed-arm refusal to hear anything else about it. We knew when we began building our PEO that several employers have a bad taste in their mouth about PEOs, usually after having (or hearing about) a bad experience. That’s one of the many reasons we sought out these opinions to help build our framework based on what employers feel does or does not work. The biggest thing we want to make clear is that we are not our competition. We don’t charge based on a percentage of payroll, baking everything together so that you’ll never really know how much you’re paying for any of our services. When employers are looking for some of the solutions a PEO can provide, they are not always looking to move all their employment-related needs under one umbrella. This is why larger, mature, and sophisticated companies have avoided entering into a PEO relationship. Surety HR is a sister company of Spooner Incorporated – an unrivaled TPA and consulting firm with less than 2% client turnover. Because of this foundation, our focus is more on lowering workers’ comp premiums instead of bundling services that you may not need or want. It also means if and when you decide it’s time to exit the PEO, the process will b
Continued COVID Guidance: New OSHA ETS, FFCRA Update, Mask Mandates and Re-Entry following Travel
June 2021 OSHA Emergency Temporary Standard More guidance has been issued from OSHA, directed at healthcare industry employers such as hospitals, emergency responders, long term care, etc. The new Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS) for Covid-19 went into effect June 10, 2021. You can find a great summary here that also includes a link to the flowchart on OSHA.gov. June 2021 COVID & FFCRA Update The FFCRA was mandatory for many employers until December 31 of 2020. The previous administration extended the paid leave provisions of the FFCRA through March 31, 2021 – however, the extension was no longer mandatory. If employers chose to provide paid leave benefits due to COVID, they were still eligible to receive the tax credit to offset the costs of paying employee leave. Additionally, President Biden extended the FFCRA provisions in the American Rescue Plan Act (“ARPA”) through September 30, 2021. Biden also added some new components of the paid leave, which include: • Additional reasons employees can take paid leave o Time spent in order to get the vaccine o Time from work missed due to complications from the vaccine • The 80 hour limit reset on April 1, 2021 o Meaning if an employee exhausted their Paid Sick Leave before Ma
How Solid Is Your HR Foundation?
Spooner's sister company, Surety HR has a staff of HR Professionals with the capabilities to provide a variety of solutions to any HR problem your company might be facing. While our PEO clients have these services embedded, they are available to all businesses. Some of the services we offer include: Handbook (policies and procedures) Compliance (I-9/EEOC/DOL/employee files) Disciplinary and termination guidance Harassment/bullying in workplace training Recruiting Job descriptions Employee performance evaluation Review hierarchy and comp structure Especially when it comes to issues of compliance, these are not things your company should leave to chance! A small investment now to get these things in place could potentially save you a fortune (and protect you from lawsuits) in the future. Please contact Todd Kereszturi for a free consultation. Todd can be reached at 440-249-5260 x132 or
How the American Rescue Plan Act Could Impact Your Business
The American Rescue Plan Act is Signed Into Law The American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), which is the latest bill to address the ongoing economic impacts of COVID-19, has been signed into law. Most aspects of the law do not directly affect the HR function, but those that do—optional extension of sick and family leave and establishment of COBRA subsidies—are outlined below. OPTIONAL EXTENSION OF SICK AND FAMILY LEAVES Part of ARPA is an extension of the current tax credit scheme for Emergency Paid Sick Leave (EPSL) and Emergency Family and Medical Leave (EFMLA) under the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA). The FFCRA required many employers to provide EPSL and EFMLA in 2020, but became optional when it was previously extended to cover January 1 through March 31, 2021. The new extension under ARPA takes effect April 1, 2021, and lasts through September 30, 2021. Like the current version, it remains optional. In addition, tax credits are available but only to employers with fewer than 500 employees and up to certain caps. To receive the tax credit, employers are required to follow the original provisions of the FFCRA. For example, they can’t deny EPSL or EFMLA to an employee if they’re otherwise eligible, can’t terminate them for taking EPSL or EFMLA, and have to continue their health insurance during these leaves. Emergency Paid Sick Leave (EPSL) Changes Here are the key changes to EPSL, in effect from April 1 through September 3
