Answer:   Not as long as many employers may think.   Outside of a couple of legally regulated leaves and collective bargaining agreements, there are few restrictions.  Whether by omission or commission, you may be paying thousands of unnecessary dollars for medical premiums. Worse yet, we often see employers continuing payment of medical premiums for employees who are out of work on a workers’ compensation injury for several months, but not at all for an employee out for a non-work injury or pregnancy.  That’s a problem.

Employers not covered by the federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) or the state equivalent CA Family Rights Act (CFRA) (typically those with fewer than 50 employees) have no requirements to continue to contribute toward medical coverage while an employee is on a medical leave of absence.  However, it is important that the employer be consistent in continuing payments for employees on a medical leave.  The laws are specific that pregnancy related disabilities must be treated the same as any other non-pregnancy type disability leave.  So, if an employer chooses to continue paying medical premiums for 3 months for a workers’ compensation injury, then it’s necessary that an employee on pregnancy disability leave be offered the same coverage.

If your organization is covered by the FMLA or CFRA then you must continue to pay the employer’s portion of the employee’s medical premium for up to 12 weeks.  (Remember that a workers’ compensation injury, pregnancy disability, or caring for an ill family member may also fall under the FMLA/CFRA requirements.) Once that time has expired and if the employee has not returned to work, then the employer may offer the employee the option of continuing medical coverage under COBRA.  COBRA premiums are paid fully by the employee. Some employers choose to pay the premiums for a longer period because of past practice, generosity, or even guilt. There are no legal requirements that the employer’s portion of the group medical premiums be paid after the FMLA/CFRA required 12 weeks. 

Many of our non-FMLA clients are beginning to move to a policy of offering medical premium contributions for the first month of the unpaid leave only.   The subsequent offer is “move to COBRA or lose medical coverage” after the end of the first month of leave.   It is not necessary to continue this premium contribution because the injury or illness is based on a work related issue or pregnancy.  Remember, if the employee is covered under FMLA or CFRA it is essential that the employer’s portion of the medical premiums be paid for up to 12 weeks regardless of how other leaves may be covered.

Personal leaves of absence (that trip to Tahiti for 4 months) may be treated differently than medical leaves for duration as well as other benefit coverage.

If you choose to change your policy or practice about medical premium contributions feel free to call us. The beginning of the year is a perfect time to announce changes in past practice.

 A “For Your Benefits” brochure published by the CA EDD outlining an employee’s rights to several state benefit programs. The most recent publication (DE2320) is dated November 2006.  You may order these from our office or download the lengthy EDD DE form 2320 here. 

 The California Health Insurance Premium Payment (HIPP) Program also requires that employers give separating employees notice of their rights under the HIPP laws for assistance in paying medical premiums.  You may download a sample HIPP Notice here.

All of the above forms and more are available to our clients at our website library. Contact us for the password.  An employee or his/her dependents losing  group health coverage may be eligible for COBRA continuation of coverage and must receive a COBRA Continuation Coverage Election Notice outlining all the rights under this extensive law.  This Notice does not have to be delivered to the employee on the final work day.  However, timing and proof of delivery are very important under this law.  The employer must notify the plan administrator within 30 days of the employee’s loss of coverage. The plan administrator must send to the employee (and covered dependents) the Notice within 14 days. COBRA Notices will vary.  We suggest you contact your insurance carrier first, and we can certainly advise as well.
 
Employers with 20 or fewer employees will be covered by Cal-COBRA and will have these notification services completed by the insurance carrier.  Larger employers will have to administer this notification process internally or hire a third party to do so.  Penalties for delaying this Notice are significant, ranging from $100/day for each day of non-compliance to $500,000 or 10% of the health plan costs (whichever is less) for major violations.

John has been late a number of times over the last six months. His supervisor has given him a verbal warning, and a written warning. He’s been warned that one more tardy this month and he’ll be suspended – that should get his attention!

Today, John is 20 minutes late. His three day suspension is automatic.

Answer: What’s the point? This suspension is harder on the employer than the employee in many cases.

John gets three days off without pay, while his employer loses him for even more time than he’s already missed.

There are no requirements or laws for private sector employers (outside of a collective bargaining agreement) to give progressive discipline or increasingly severe penalties (usually noted as a verbal warning, then written warning, followed by suspension) before an employee is demoted or terminated.

Of course, giving the employee some “feedback” that he’s veering off course, including the expectations and consequences is usually recommended. Rather than a multiple day suspension many employers give the employee a final written warning and a day of “decision making” leave. In any case, losing the employee’s productivity is not beneficial to the employer (hasn’t he already missed enough work?) and will not further support the employer’s decision to terminate the employee.

We typically recommend suspending an employee for a very short period of time (one day) except pending an investigation or drug/medical test results.

Answer: If a Salesperson is away from the office more than 50% of the time, selling services or products, they may be considered “exempt” from overtime as an Outside Salesperson. If they are legitimately classified as “exempt” by meeting the job duties test of the Outside Sales Exemption, there is no minimum pay requirement. They can be paid a fixed salary, salary plus commission, or on a commission-only basis and there is no minimum wage or salary required.

Answer: If you have 50 employees or contractors in California, you are required to train your supervisors/managers on AB1825 within 6 months of hire and every 2 years thereafter. The AB1825 training is 2 hours and must be taught by a qualified instructor.

If you have separate companies with different Tax IDs, each Tax ID is considered a different company for purposes of counting “50” for AB1825. However, it is highly recommended that all supervisors/managers (regardless if they have fewer than 50 employees) are trained in order to reduce potential liability associated with sexual harassment or discrimination claims.

Answer: Yes, but there are restrictions on the employment of minors under the age of 18 that would apply in this case. You must acquire the required work permit before employing a minor. Permits are required year-round, even when school is not in session; they are issued in one school year and expire five days after a new school year begins. There are other restrictions on days of work and hours as well.

Employers must keep on file all Permits to Work and Permits to Employ, which must be open at all times for inspection by school authorities and officers of the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement. Forms are available from the CA Department of Education.

Answer: If the meeting takes place on an employee’s regularly scheduled work day but the employee must return sometime after the end of his or her shift to attend the meeting, an additional two hours of “reporting time pay” must be paid.

Answer:  Yes, this would be permitted as long as the meals are taken before the fifth hour of work and are duty free.  The meals must be recorded on the time record with the in/out times.

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Answer: If the employee is not eligible for CFRA leave, the extended time off would not be protected under Federal or State law. The employer should first request a return-to-work doctor’s certificate confirming the end of their pregnancy disability.

The employer is not required to grant the time off. However, if the time off is granted, the employer should provide an EDD Paid Family Leave pamphlet which describes the wage replacement benefits available during time off to care for family members.