NJECPAC & NJ-IEC Partnering to Protect You And Your Business

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New Jersey, United States
NJECPAC is a Continuing Political Committee (CPC). A CPC is any group of two or more persons acting jointly, or any corporation, partnership, or any other incorporated or unincorporated association, civic association or other organization, which in any calendar year contributes to aid or promote the candidacy of an individual, or the candidacies of individuals, for elective public office, or the passage or defeat of a public question or public questions, lobby for the passage or defeat of certain legislative bills introduced in the NJ Legislature in accordance with N.J.S.A. 19:44A-8(b). A CPC is frequently referred to as Political Action Committee (PAC). The NJECPAC was formed to provide funding for legislative initiatives of its members and its member organizations representing the interests of Electrical Contractors, Small Businesses and Taxpayers throughout the State of New Jersey.

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Friday, September 21, 2012

Don’t Play & Pay: Navigating Employer Health Coverage Mandate

On Friday, August 31, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) issued guidance regarding the application of the employer-sponsored health coverage mandate. Employers need to begin planning for these rules as soon as possible. While the employer coverage mandate itself does not apply until 2014, it may be necessary to begin tracking the hours of employees as soon as this October in order to facilitate compliance.
The Play or Pay Rules
The employer-sponsored health coverage mandate is designed to require non exempt employers to either provide employees with adequate and affordable health coverage or to require those employers to pay certain penalties for their failure to do so. Specifically, penalties are triggered if:
  • (1) An employer fails to offer all of its “full-time employees” the opportunity to enroll in an employer-sponsored health plan; or (2) the employer-sponsored health plan offered to “full-time employees” is “unaffordable” or fails to provide “minimum value”; AND
  • Any employee impacted by such a failure purchases individual health insurance coverage through a State-based or Federally-facilitated Exchange and qualifies for a subsidy.
Failure to Provide Coverage
Employers who fail to provide coverage to all of their “full-time employees” are subject to a penalty of $2,000 per year (assessed on a monthly basis) multiplied by their total “full- time employee” count. For employers that provide health coverage, the challenge with respect to this rule is identifying all of their “full-time employees”—and making sure all such employees are offered coverage. In the event that even one “full-time employee” is not offered coverage and subsequently attains subsidized coverage through an exchange, the penalty is applied to all “full-time employees.” Thus, with respect to any employees who do receive employer-sponsored coverage, the employer could end up “playing” and “paying.” Read More Here
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Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Do At-Will Employment Disclaimers Violate The NLRA?

This summer the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has taken the position that commonly used at‑will employment disclaimers could be a violation of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). Section 7 of the NLRA guarantees employees the right to engage in “concerted activities for the purposes of collective bargaining or other mutual aid or protection.” The NLRB’s recent actions continue a trend of stringent enforcement of employee’s Section 7 rights that many times brings non‑union employers within the jurisdiction of the NLRB.

Labor law is rapidly changing and the NLRB has drastically increased its activity. Specifically, the NLRB is finding more and more ways in which they believe an employer’s actions or policies violates an employee’s rights to concerted activity under Section 7 of the NLRA. Accordingly, employers should pay close attention and monitor these types of enforcement actions. 

Monday, September 17, 2012

Congress Votes to Extend E-Verify for Three More Years

E-Verify is an Internet-based, free program run by the United States Government that compares information from an employee's Employment Eligibility Verification Form I-9 to data from U.S. government records. If the information matches, that employee is eligible to work in the United States.
E-Verify was to expire in March 2009, lawmakers began working on an extension in the fall of 2008. New Jersey's Sen. Bob Menendez refused to lift a hold he placed on the extension without a massive increase in green cards, so Congress put the E-Verify extension on the shelf until the spring.
Neither action was about mandating E-Verify for all employers. But for the government to be allowed to offer E-Verify for voluntary use, the extensions had to be passed in 2009 and again this month.
The House of Representatives has now approved the extension of E-Verify for another 3 years. The electronic employment verification program, which could have big impact in ending the flow of illegal immigration to the United States, is set to expire at the end of the month, but, now that it's passed through both chambers of Congress, we fully expect Pres. Obama to sign the extension into law. Read More Here