"Helping retirement and health plan participants find answers to questions about their benefits and providing assistance when they believe their benefits have been improperly denied is one of our most important responsibilities," said EBSA Assistant Secretary Phyllis C. Borzi. "The new consumer assistance Web page and electronic inquiry/complaint process will provide quick answers to the most frequently asked questions and connect workers to experienced benefits advisers if assistance is needed."

The page includes links to various tools and publications with information on benefit plans, as well as answers to questions about "hot topics." Users also have the option to submit a question, file a complaint or report a problem with their plan. Inquiries and complaints submitted are sent directly to EBSA benefits advisers, who will respond as soon as possible but no later than three business days. Additionally, the system automatically routes the requests to the appropriate EBSA regional office based on users' ZIP codes.

The new Web page is also available in Spanish. EBSA has a number of benefits advisers who are fluent in Spanish and a translation service is available for a variety of other languages. The page can be found by going to http://www.dol.gov/ebsa/ and then selecting "Request Assistance" or "Solicitud de Asistencia" at the top of the page.

EBSA receives thousands of calls each year on its toll-free consumer assistance line at 866-444-3272. The agency hopes this new Web page and electronic inquiry system will provide more efficient service to individuals seeking assistance. EBSA's benefits advisers assisted more than 230,000 consumers last year and obtained more than $478 million in benefits that had been wrongly denied to 173,000 participants through informal dispute resolution. EBSA also opened 900 formal investigations of retirement and health plans based on referrals from benefits advisers of complaints that could not be resolved informally.

The Labor Department issued a six-factor test to determine internship status to great fanfare a year ago and announced that it would be cracking down on businesses that misclassified as interns people who were otherwise doing work that should be compensated.

In Solis v. Laurelbook Sanitarium and School, Inc., the DOL's litmus test was rejected by the justices, who wrote:

[W]e hold that the proper approach for determining whether an employment relationship exists in the context of a training or learning situation is to ascertain which party derives the primary benefit from the relationship. Factors such as whether the relationship displaces paid employees and whether there is educational value derived from the relationship are relevant considerations that can guide the inquiry.

Of course, this is no indication that other courts won't side with the DOL, but in the 6th Circuit at least, a new standard has been set.

To better understand and comply with overtime, internship and general wage and employment standards, Personnel Concepts offers its powerful but easy-to-use FLSA Compliance Program that comes with both a manual and a CD-ROM. Get yours today.

However, the safe harbor places various restrictions on the use of electronic delivery. For instance, merely posting the information on an intranet site is not deemed sufficient, but sending it via an e-mail attachment with return receipt is. Also, if not everyone at work has access to a computer, those people without computers must be given the option of a paper delivery.

The Department of Labor (DOL), which issued the 2002 rule, now wants to revisits the safe harbor provisions in light of all the technological advances since the first issuance. The deadline is June 6, and details about participation can be found in the Federal Register.

PPACA originally set the deadline for Jan. 1, 2011, but before that date even rolled around, it was extended to July 1, 2011. On March 18 the deadline was extended once again, this time to Jan. 1, 2012 (or the first day of the plan year that falls after that).

Under PPACA, health insurers will face a 24-hour window to notify plan participants of urgent care claim decisions. If the decision is not made and the claimant not notified in that period, the claim is deemed to be denied, opening up the insurer to lawsuit or external review.

In addition, these notices must be culturally and linguistically appropriate, meaning they might have to be in a language other than English. Finally, the notices must disclose both the diagnostic and treatment codes, along with explanations of what they mean.

The DOL announcement gives these guidelines:

In addressing these questions or others, the Department requests that participants identify with the regulation or reporting requirement at issue and provide legal citation(s) where available. The Department also requests that submitters provide, in as much detail as possible, an explanation of why a regulation or reporting requirement should be modified, streamlined, expanded, or repealed, as well as specific suggestions of ways the Department can better achieve its regulatory objectives. Whenever possible, please provide empirical evidence and data to support your response.

The portal is found at dolregs.ideascale.com.

PPACA inserts a provision in the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) requiring businesses with 200 or more employees to automatically enroll all employees into a health plan, but new FLSA section 18A will not take effect until a final rule is issued.

Public discussions are being held before formulating and issuing that final rule.

Section 18A also requires employers to provide timely notice of the enrollment along with a mechanism to opt out.

EBSA is part of the Department of Labor (DOL), whose Frances Perkins Building in Washington, D.C., will host the gathering.

Employers, keep your workforces advised of their rights and obligations under health reform by obtaining and posting a copy of Personnel Concepts' Health Care Reform Employee Information Poster.

The partnership between the DOL and the ABA springs from the Middle Class Task Force that President Obama set up, and it’s part of the administration’s Access to Justice Initiative.

Here’s how the department explained it in a press release:

“Beginning on December 13, 2010, complainants whose cases cannot be resolved by DOL because of limited capacity will be given a toll-free number to a newly created system where they are connected to an ABA-approved attorney referral provider if there are participating attorneys in their area.

“In addition, if DOL has conducted an investigation, the complainant will be given information about the findings to provide to an attorney who may take the case, including the violations at issue and any back wages owed.

Personnel Concepts offers a variety of powerful compliance tools to help employers and human resource professionals deal with wage and hour issues. Check out our Web site’s Human Resource Tools section today.

Plan administrators will now have to provide detailed, plain-language breakouts of all fees and expenses associated with 401(k) and similar retirement accounts.

"This rule provides uniform disclosure to workers about what they pay for investment options in their retirement plans," said Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis. "For the first time, workers will have at their fingertips important and accessible investment-related information to comparison shop among the plan options available to them."

This and other important human resource management information is contained in each issue of Personnel Concepts’ Benefits Law Quarterly newsletter, which you can obtaining by purchasing our HIPAA Compliance Poster Subscription and Newsletter.

Senator Sherrod Brown, D.-Ohio, has introduced the Employee Misclassification Protection Act (EMPA), which amends the FLSA to require employees to notify newly hired independent contractors in writing of their status.

The law would require employers to retain a record of each notification and specifies that the absence of this record immediately makes the contractor a regular employee of the company. The bill also comes packed with a set of fines and other consequences.

The legislation follows last year’s introduction by Senator John Kerry, D.-Massachusetts, of the Taxpayer Responsibility, Accountability and Consistency Act (TRAC?), which would remove the safe harbor provision of the Revenue Act of 1978 regarding employee misclassification.

DOL Secretary Hilda Solis immediately hailed the EMPA for addressing "this significant and troubling issue" of worker misclassification.

Thus far the DOL under Secretary Solis has targeted interns, independent contractors and non-exempt employees who are misclassified and not paid overtime as the focus of their wage and hour enforcement.

Employers, don’t fly by the seat of your pants in this important area of worker classification. If you get it wrong, you could be subject to back overtime wages and other penalties. Get yourself a copy of Personnel Concepts’ FLSA Overtime Rules Compliance Kit and ensure your employees are classified and paid correctly.

"I have a message for those employers who break this nation’s labor laws and prey on vulnerable workers: It ends today," she said in her self-announced role as "the new sheriff in town." 

The new "We Can Help" campaign is essentially a public-relations effort to remind workers—particularly those in construction, hotels/motels, the food service industry and home healthcare—that the Labor Department exists to protect workers, not employers.

"This sheriff believes that workplace enforcement is not only our responsibility, but it is our moral obligation," Solis said, noting that she has increased enforcement staff in all of the Labor Department’s agencies, including 250 new field investigators for the Wage and Hour Division. "If someone is stealing your wages, you can and should call the Department of Labor," she said.

Employers, a good guide for staying in compliance with the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) is to get a copy of Personnel Concepts’ FLSA Overtime Rules Compliance Kit. The kit will help you properly classify–and then pay–your workforce, while keeping the new sheriff and her posse from your doorstep.