Welcome to AMS Blog

Let us know your thoughts, question and suggestions!



Wednesday, April 22, 2015

Employers report limited premium increases in wake of ACA

Health care in the U.S. is a hot button issue but the early consensus is that the Affordable Care Act has been integrated well by employers.

“One of the big concerns [about the ACA] is this is going to drive up our premiums and the cost of healthcare,” says Christopher Ryan, vice president, Strategic Advisory Services at ADP.
But, he adds, this has not materialized as originally thought. “I give credit do business,” he adds, “I think business looked very carefully at their current practices and … has been well managed.”

A new study suggests that premiums for employees and headaches for employers have been minimal. The 2015 ADP Annual Health Benefits Report says that for companies with more than 1,000 employees, insurance premiums have risen 9.4% since 2011 – and only 2.6% from 2014 to 2015.

Thursday, April 09, 2015

Care in terminating an employee?


Question about Terminations

We have an employee who was expected to return from FMLA yesterday. She has not returned and we haven't heard from her. Can we terminate her employment?

Answer from Rebecca, one of our HR Pros

Communication from both the employer and the employee is critical to the success of leave that is protected under the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA). This is especially true if the employee’s expected return date is before her full FMLA allowance would be used. In that situation, it is possible that the continued absence would be protected FMLA leave, so you should make every practical effort to contact the employee, by phone, email, and certified mail. All efforts to contact the employee should be documented

You should also consider whether the employee may be protected under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), even if all FMLA protected leave has been taken. FMLA issues can often prompt an ADA analysis. If you think there is any possibility that the employee would be considered disabled under the ADA based on your objective knowledge (and especially the reasons given for the initial FMLA leave) you should also be reaching out in an effort to start the ADA interactive process to determine if she is disabled and if there are any reasonable accommodations that can be made.

You may be able to sever the employment relationship if the employee is completely unresponsive within a reasonable period of time. However, prior to termination we recommend that you make written attempts to reach the employee via certified mail, return receipt requested, and document those attempts in her personnel file. While the “reasonable period of time” may be dependent on the particular situation, generally two weeks from the confirmed date of receipt of the certified letter would be an acceptable amount of time to wait before proceeding with a termination for job abandonment. You should also ensure that no contract, state specific regulation, or other protection (such as workers’ compensation) would require additional allowed absence or a different termination procedure.

Following this procedure shows "good faith" on your end. Acting in good faith and documenting your good faith efforts may provide you with protection should you ever be challenged with regard to your decision to terminate this employee.

Even if the FMLA protected leave is exhausted and no ADA protections are available to the returning employee, you may choose not to treat the failure to return from FMLA leave in exactly the same way as other job abandonment is treated. By giving the employee who has failed to return from leave a week or two to explain the absence, you can ensure that all parties are in agreement about the expected return date and that additional protected leave is not required. However, if you do decide to apply your regular job abandonment policy in this situation, you should make sure that you are giving the non-returning employee the same number of missed work days and attempts at communication before termination that you would give to any other employee, or have given to other employees in the past.