On April 7, 2017, the Treasury Inspector General released the results of its audit to assess the Internal Revenue Service’s (IRS) preparations for ensuring compliance with the employer shared responsibility (employer mandate) rules and related reporting requirements. Due to many system and operational problems, the IRS is still not able to identify employers subject to any of these penalties and thus, the enforcement of these rules has not commenced.

Recently, the National Labor Relations Board ruled that employer's rules that prohibit recording of company meetings or conversations in the workplace violated the National Labor Relations Act. Despite this ruling, I recommend keeping your rules in place - here's three reason why.

The Department of Labor (DOL) updated the Summary of Benefits and Coverage (SBC) template and instructions that employers and health insurers must use going forward. All employers and health insurers must begin using the new SBC template and the new glossary of terms for all health insurance plans that renew on or after April 1, 2017.  This requirement to use the new template remains intact regardless ACA discussions.

The full U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit ruled this past month that sexual orientation is prohibited sex discrimination within the meaning of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Previously, sexual orientation was not a protected class of sex discrimination under Title VII.  This decision flies in the face of decisions by several other circuit courts which have ruled that sexual orientation is not a protected class. Ultimately, the U.S. Supreme Court may have to decide this issue during an upcoming session.

Due to rapid fire technology and innovations, I have been asked multiple times over the years if employees have the right to record, openly or secretly, conversations at the workplace. This is true whether the employee is disgruntled, the employee wants to catch the employer doing or saying something inappropriate, the employee is simply antagonistic or the employee is trying to cover his or her butt for some reason. 

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) continue to be busy bees in the wellness program arena. Two recent events involving the EEOC and wellness programs have popped up in the news lately, both of which employers will want to take note.

With the ACA information reporting deadlines for the 2016 calendar year now past (barring an individual extension), employers should- if they have not already done so- confirm the accuracy of all information returns and correct any errors as soon as possible with both the IRS and their employees. This is true even if there are no penalties associated with filing mistakes as long as the employer demonstrates that it made a good faith basis in completing the required ACA forms.  This “good faith” basis was extended to the 2016 filing year by the Obama administration earlier this year. 

On January 18, 2017, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) released detailed breakdowns for the 91,503 charges of workplace discrimination the agency received in fiscal year 2016. The EEOC details its annual litigation recap every January and this is the second year in a row that the number of charges filed with the EEOC has increased. For the most part, EEOC activity has been on the uptick for the last decade. So, what does this mean for employers?