Workforce Bulletin

We recommend this recent client alert on Epstein Becker Green's website: "Special Immigration Alert: The Immigration Ripple Effect of a Government Shutdown," by Robert Groban, Jr., Pierre Georges Bonnefil, Patrick Brady, Jang Im, and Greta Ravitsky, our colleagues at Epstein Becker Green.

Following is an excerpt:

The looming prospect of a Government shutdown will have a significant impact on the immigration process. Activities of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will be largely unaffected because it is funded by the fees it collects. The shutdown ...

By Anna A. Cohen         

A common complaint from retail employers is that employees requesting FMLA leave often submit Certifications from health care providers that are incomplete (one or more of the entries are blank) or insufficient (the information provided is vague, ambiguous, or non-responsive).  Employers are not required to automatically grant a leave of absence upon receipt of a deficient Certification.  Rather, there are several things an employer can do to ensure that it is granting leave for a qualifying reason and for an appropriate duration.

If the Certification is ...

Following the announcement last week of the first ever Deferred Prosecution Agreement in an OSHA matter, the Editor of the Corporate Crime Reporter interviewed Eric J. Conn, Head of Epstein Becker Green's national OSHA Practice Group, who was involved in the matter, about OSHA enforcement trends in general, and OSHA criminal prosecutions in particular.

Based on that interview, Corporate Crime Reporter ran an article entitled Epstein Becker Partner Eric Conn On the Rise of OSHA Enforcement.  Here are some excerpts from the article:

"'OSHA enforcement is up in every measurable ...

By Lisa M. Watanabe

On September 12, 2013, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued a bulletin warning employers that they cannot require their employees to receive wages on payroll cards. The CFPB's bulletin was issued amid the growing unrest among workers about the high and unexpected fees often associated with payroll cards.  Critics say that the fees may be so high that employees end up making less than the minimum wage.

In recent years, there has been an increasing amount of employers (especially in the retail and food-service industries) who have adopted this ...

On September 13, 2013, the Obama Administration rejected the union movement's intense lobbying efforts to seek a waiver, so that their members would be able to receive tax subsidies in the Affordable Care Act ("ACA") Marketplaces for those of their members who will be offered "affordable coverage" from their employers.

We’d like to recommend an upcoming complimentary webinar, “Addressing and Responding to Workplace Violence and Active Shooter Scenarios to Protect Your Employees” (Oct. 2, 2:00 p.m. EDT), by our Epstein Becker Green colleagues Kara M. Maciel, Susan Gross Sholinsky, and Christopher M. Locke, with Daniel Hess and Lynne Cripe of The KonTerra Group, an employee assistance program provider that regularly counsels employees undergoing stressful life events that can lead to violence. 

Below is their description of the event:

Violence in the workplace can range from bullying ...

We’d like to recommend an upcoming complimentary webinar, “Addressing and Responding to Workplace Violence and Active Shooter Scenarios to Protect Your Employees” (Oct. 2, 2:00 p.m. EDT), by our Epstein Becker Green colleagues Kara M. Maciel, Susan Gross Sholinsky, and Christopher M. Locke, with Daniel Hess and Lynne Cripe of The KonTerra Group, an employee assistance program provider that regularly counsels employees undergoing stressful life events that can lead to violence.

Below is their description of the event:

Violence in the workplace can range from bullying and ...

We’d like to recommend an upcoming complimentary webinar, “Addressing and Responding to Workplace Violence and Active Shooter Scenarios to Protect Your Employees” (Oct. 2, 2:00 p.m. EDT), by our Epstein Becker Green colleagues Kara M. Maciel, Susan Gross Sholinsky, and Christopher M. Locke, with Daniel Hess and Lynne Cripe of The KonTerra Group, an employee assistance program provider that regularly counsels employees undergoing stressful life events that can lead to violence.

Below is their description of the event:

Violence in the workplace can range from bullying and ...

We'd like to recommend an upcoming complimentary webinar, "Data Privacy and Security in the Hospitality Industry Webinar: Legal Strategies Amid Growing Liability Threats" (Oct. 10, 2:00 p.m. EDT), by our Epstein Becker Green colleagues Kara M. Maciel, Robert J. Hudock, Alaap B. Shah,and Adam C. Solander.

By: Kara M. Maciel

Many restaurants include automatic gratuities on guests’ checks with large parties to ensure servers get fair tips. This method allows the restaurant to calculate an automatic gratuity or tip into the total bill, but it takes away the customer’s discretion in choosing whether and/or how much to tip the server. As a result of this removal of a customer’s voluntary act, the IRS has decided that it will separately tax automatic gratuities.

In 2012, the IRS issued a ruling to clarify earlier tax guidance on tips, particularly automatic gratuities, but ...