The U.S. Departments of Labor (DOL), Health and Human Services, and the Treasury recently published interim final regulations in the Federal Register that implement the Paul Wellstone and Pete Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008 (MHPAEA). These regulations are effective April 5, 2010, and apply to plan years beginning on or after July 1, 2010.

The MHPAEA applies to most employers with more than 50 employees and requires those that offer mental health or substance use disorder benefits to make sure they’re in parity with the medical and surgical benefits they offer. The departments issued the regulations to further clarify the MHPAEA, and the regulations are supposed to update certain defined terms and examples and demonstrate how the expanded rules apply.

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The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has published new rules for the H-2A Guest Worker Program that have sparked protest from agricultural employers.

The new rules, to go into effect March 15, were published in the February 12 edition of the Federal Register. The final rules govern the labor certification process and enforcement mechanisms for the H-2A temporary agricultural worker program. The DOL said the rules are aimed at strengthening worker protections for both U.S. and foreign workers, but employers say the change means higher costs and a process so time-consuming they may not be able to hire enough labor to harvest their crops.

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Today, Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis hosted her third live Web chat during her tenure with the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL). During the session, Solis answered questions on the department’s proposed budget for the 2011 fiscal year. She touched briefly on the agency’s plans with the requested $116.5 billion, a decrease from last year’s $193.6 billion. This decrease can be largely attributed to a decline in unemployment insurance benefit payments.

Solis noted that the DOL’s priorities for the coming year would focus on protecting workers’ rights, expanding the agency’s role in enforcing those rights, ensuring that workers are aware of and have equal access to DOL programs, and maintaining department transparency with the public. The DOL hopes to return worker protection agencies to staffing levels that were present in 2001. For that purpose, $1.7 billion — a $69 million increase — will be allocated to these programs, allowing for an additional 177 inspectors, investigators, and other staff to be hired.

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Labor Secretary Hilda L. Solis has announced the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) regulatory agenda for 2010, saying, “Protecting wages and working conditions for workers is key to the mission of our department, and ensuring that workers have a voice on the job is also vital.” The agenda is expected to satisfy many union demands. Below is a summary of the DOL’s priorities by department.

Wage and Hour Division
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The U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) just released updated COBRA Model Notices that reflect the COBRA subsidy extension that was part of the Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2010. The new COBRA subsidy legislation extends the original federal COBRA subsidy created by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) and requires employers to provide notice to certain current and future COBRA beneficiaries that details the premium subsidy extension created by the new legislation.

The EBSA’s COBRA page now has several new model notices available, including: read more…

By Christopher L. Thomas

The federal government is making it clear to employers that immigration enforcement is a priority for the Obama administration, and that employers failing to comply with the law face severe consequences.

On November 19, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) sent out a notice that it intends to audit the I-9 forms of 1,000 employers. The audits are in addition to news from July in which 654 employers were informed that their I-9 forms would be scrutinized. Additional waves of audits are also expected.

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If a recent news release from U.S. Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis is any indication, 2010 may prove to be a year of ramped-up enforcement from the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL). In her November 19 statement, Secretary Solis sent a clear message about the enforcement and outreach efforts occurring within the DOL’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD), announcing the recent hire of an additional 250 wage and hour investigators as well as plans for a public awareness campaign on worker rights, expected to launch in 2010.

The hiring effort at the WHD represents a staff increase of more than one-third, a move that will significantly improve the DOL’s top priority of protecting worker rights by allowing prompter response to complaints of wage violations and more targeted enforcement. Solis’ message is clear: “Failure to comply with these basic labor standards means that workers are not receiving the money they have earned,” and the department “will not rest until the law is followed by every employer, and each worker is treated and compensated fairly.”

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U.S. Senator Christopher Dodd (D-Connecticut) and U.S. Representative Rosa DeLauro (D-Connecticut) introduced legislation yesterday that would guarantee paid sick leave for employees infected by the H1N1 virus (also known as “swine flu”). The legislation would take effect 15 days after being signed into law but would end after two years.

According to Dodd and DeLauro’s websites, the legislation would allow employees to earn up to seven paid sick days to use: read more…

Congress has moved with surprising speed in passing legislation to expand the situations in which an employee may take military caregiver leave and qualifying exigency leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). The “Supporting Military Families Act of 2009″ was only introduced in the House and Senate in late July. Now it has been tacked on to the National Defense Authorization Act for FY 2010, which has been approved in both houses of Congress and sent to President Barack Obama. He is expected to sign the legislation.

The Supporting Military Families Act enacts several major changes to the military family leave provisions of the FMLA: read more…

By Michelle Sullivan, Holland & Hart LLP

Kathleen Sebelius, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) secretary, issued a statement on October 2 indicating that employers awaiting guidance before implementing changes to medical plans required by the Paul Wellstone and Pete Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008 should not expect regulations to be issued until January 2010 — after the law goes into effect for calendar-year plans. In the absence of regulations, plan sponsors should make a reasonable “good-faith” effort to adhere to the law’s intent.

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