HEALTH CARE REFORM UPDATE

On October 13, 2009, the Senate Finance Committee passed its version of health care reform.  Now that all five committees with jurisdiction over health care reform have passed legislation, it is up to the leadership in each house of Congress to merge the bills in that house for action on the floor of the house, where there will undoubtedly be many amendments.

AGENCIES ISSUE INTERIM RULES UNDER GINA

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Department of Labor and the Internal Revenue Service have released an interim final rule prohibiting discrimination on the basis of an individual’s genetic information under Title 1 of the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008 (GINA). 

EEOC ISSUES ADAAA REGULATIONS

On September 23, 2009, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) published proposed regulations in the Federal Register to implement the equal employment provisions of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), as amended by the ADA Amendments Act of 2008.  The EEOC also published questions and answers about the proposed regulations.

STATE AND LOCAL UPDATE

Anyone who has worked for or with a multi-state employer knows that one of the most difficult aspects of absence management is keeping up with changes in state and local laws.  This posting is an effort to provide some of the more recent information about changes in state and local leave laws.

IRS ALLOWS DEPOSITING UNUSED VACATION AND SICK LEAVE TO 401(k)s

In his weekly radio address on September 5, 2009, the President proposed a number of new initiatives to help families save for retirement.  One of them is to allow unused leave to be converted to 401(k) savings. 

Court of Appeals Finds Termination Unrelated to FMLA

An employer almost lost an FMLA case because it did not respond in a timely fashion.  Kevin Cracco sued Vitran Express (Vitran) for violating his rights under the FMLA.