This chart summarizes Medicare’s coordination of benefits rules for employer-sponsored health plans, which determine whether the group health plan or Medicare pays first on health care claims.

Question:

Does the National Labor Relations Act apply to my business if we don’t have a union?

Answer:

“It does! Congress enacted the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) in 1935 to protect the rights of employees and employers, to encourage collective bargaining, and to limit certain labor and management practices that can harm the general welfare of workers, businesses, and the U.S. economy. Although a good portion of the NLRA deals with unionization, Section 7 of the act provides protections for all nonsupervisory employees, even those not involved with a union.”

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This Q&A does not constitute legal advice and does not address state or local law.

The next prescription drug data collection (RxDC) report is due by Saturday, June 1, 2024. Employers should start contacting their issuers, TPAs or PBMs, as applicable, to confirm that they will submit the RxDC files for their health plans by this deadline. For further explanation, this Compliance Bulletin explains further.

Question: 
“What are whistleblower protections?”

Answer:
Whistleblowing occurs when an employee reports wrongdoing (dangerous, illegal, or unethical activity or practices by the company or its employees) either directly to the employer or to an outside authority. Many laws, including the Occupational Safety and Health Act, consider whistleblowing a protected activity, meaning you can’t lawfully retaliate against an employee for making such a report. If you were to retaliate, for instance, by disciplining the employee or excluding them from promotional opportunities, the employee could file a complaint.

Read more: Link

This Q&A does not constitute legal advice and does not address state or local law.

AI and HR: Accelerating Your Learning Curve

Wednesday, March 13, 2024
10:00 AM PT | 1:00 PM ET

Register: Link

We want to ensure that the offboarding process for former employees is carried out efficiently. The detailed steps in this checklist will guide you through the process and help ensure that all necessary tasks related to employee benefits are addressed.

Question:

A remote employee’s roommate has been disrupting their work to the point that their performance is suffering. How should we handle this?

Answer:

This situation should be handled the same way you’d manage most work disruptions affecting an employee’s performance. Start by having a conversation with the employee about the disruption and explaining your concerns and performance expectations. Remind them that it’s their responsibility to maintain a working environment where they can be successful.

Read more: Link

This Q&A does not constitute legal advice and does not address state or local law.

Question: 

“An employee says their manager told them to lose their accent if they ever want to be promoted. Could this be considered discrimination?”

Answer:

“Yes. Discrimination based on national origin is prohibited under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act and includes treating applicants or employees unfavorably because they are from a particular country or region of the world, speak with an accent, or appear to be of a certain ethnic background. Even if the manager didn’t follow through on the lack of promotion, ongoing comments from the manager about the employee’s accent could also be considered harassment. We recommend that you take this situation seriously and investigate it immediately.”

Read more: Link

This Q&A does not constitute legal advice and does not address state or local law.

Wednesday, February 20, 2024
10:00 AM PT | 1:00 PM ET

We know HR professionals are tasked with a wide range of responsibilities – but we don’t think creating an employee training program from scratch should be one of them. Whether you’re exploring for the first time or need a refresher on best practices, join us for a crash course on how to create training tracks, assign courses, manage training progress and more – all within Learn and the Mineral Platform.

Join Evan Seleska, Customer Success Manager at Mineral, for a guided tour on how to leverage Learn to create and assign a personalized curriculum of employee training courses. In this webinar, you’ll learn:

Register: Link

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recently released the federal poverty level (FPL) guidelines for 2024. This Compliance Bulletin summarizes how FPL guidelines may impact an employer’s liability under the ACA’s pay-or-play rules.