Vigilant Blog

We all know its illegal to retaliate against an employee for filing a discrimination claim under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. But what if the company doesnt do anything to the employee and instead fires her fianc? The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled such an action is illegal, because it might well discourage…

Does your company offer employees tax-favored educational benefits? If so, then the tax relief package signed by the President in December contains good news for you. The Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010 (

HIRE Acts Social Security tax holiday expired. Theres still one more tax benefit to be gained, though, if you hired workers who qualified under the HIRE Act. You can get a tax credit if you keep them employed for at least 52 consecutive weeks, and their wages during the last 26 weeks of employment are…

HR 4853, PL 111-312)). Currently, both employers and employees pay 6.2 percent of an employees gross wage to Social Security taxes, but the Tax Relief Act of 2010 reduced the employees portion to 4.2 percent for one year, beginning in January 2011. The employers contribution portion will remain 6.2 percent. Employers must begin the reduced…

An interim rule prohibiting certain defense contractors from requiring employees or independent contractors to use arbitration agreements has been finalized. One commenter urged the Department of Defense (DoD) to require prime contractors only to certify compliance by their covered first-tier subcontractors. Unfortunately, the DoD refused, and decided that the obligation to certify compliance by subcontractors…

One bright spot in the new health care reform law for employers is that you and your employees eventually may qualify for rebates on 2011 insurance premiums. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently issued guidance on the new requirement for insurers to inform HHS how they spend health insurance premium dollars (

Notice 2010-82, instructions. The credit was enacted as part of this year’s federal health care reform law and is generally available to private and tax-exempt employers who employ fewer than 25 full-time equivalent employees (FTEs), who pay average annual wages of less than $50,000 per FTE, and who maintain a health plan under which the…

Tips: 1620). For more discussion, contact your Vigilant staff representative.

Most employers know that they dont have to reverify a permanent resident employees green card when it expires, but is there any harm in doing so? The answer is yes, especially if youre not reverifying the documentation of U.S. citizens. One employer will be paying a $10,200 fine for doing just that. According to the…

P.L. 110-233). The final rules published by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) contain some provisions that may surprise you: model warning that gives you a safe harbor in case the health care provider sends you the information anyway. Even if you fail to give the warning, you are still safe if your…

These types of successorship clauses are a common union demand and if you agree to one, you should be prepared to take it seriously in the event you ever decide to sell your business. A recent court case shows that the union and the courts will take the clause seriously and force you to comply…

announced that when it orders back pay for wrongfully terminated employees under the National Labor Relations Act, interest will be compounded daily. (The Boards longstanding practice was to calculate simple interest.) The longer a case drags on, the faster the potential liability builds. The announcement also stated that when the NLRB requires an employer…