A recent Massachusetts court decision upheld efforts by staffing companies and workers compensation insurers to close a loophole that allowed staffing-firm employees injured at a client company both to collect workers compensation benefits and to sue the company where they were hurt. Please click here to read a blog entry I wrote for the AIM (Associated Industries of Massachusetts) Business Insider blog.
On Tuesday, January 8, 2013, the Patrick administration proposed legislation that will repeal the Massachusetts Fair Share Law effective June 30, 2013. In effect since 2006, the Fair Share Law requires companies with Massachusetts employees to either provide compliant medical coverage to full time employees, or pay a penalty of $295 per year per employee.
It’s that time of year when we look ahead at the employment and labor laws that will go in effect in the New Year. My colleagues Mike Arnold, Kate Beattie, and Brandon Willenberg have assembled this forecast of the new laws that employers and human resources professionals in California, Massachusetts, and New York may need to comply with in 2013. Click here for more.
By Alden J. Bianchi, H. Andrew Matzkin, and Patricia A. Moran
The Massachusetts Legislature recently passed, and Governor Deval Patrick signed into law, S. 2400, “An Act Improving the Quality of Health Care and Reducing Costs through increased Transparency, Efficiency and Innovation." To read the excellent article writtn by my colleagues Alden Bianchi, Drew Matzkin and Patricia Moran, click here.
The Massachusetts Division of Unemployment assistance continues to audit Massachusetts employers, making sure that anyone doing business in Massachusetts is either meeting the requirements of the Fair Share Law or paying the appropriate penalty ($73.75 per employee per quarter).
Does an employer invade an employee’s privacy by accessing and reviewing the employee’s email? A recent Massachusetts Superior Court decision, Falmouth Firefighters Union v. Town of Falmouth, answers “no.”
My colleague, Jillian M. Collins, published an alert today reminding readers that the remaining changes from the 2010 overhaul of the Massachusetts Criminal Offender Record Information (CORI) law will go into effect on May 4, 2012. We first addressed changes to the CORI law in an alert published in September 2010, when the “ban the box” provision prohibited most employers from requesting criminal history information on an initial employment application. To read the full alert, click here.
On November 15, 2011, the Massachusetts House of Representatives passed An Act Relative to Gender Identity, by a vote of 115 to 37. The next day, the bill was passed in a voice vote by the Massachusetts Senate. If Governor Patrick signs it, which he is expected to do, the Transgender Act will go into effect on July 1, 2012.
