Economic Stimulus Bill Expands Cobra Requirements
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Date: 2/18/2009
On February 17, 2009, President Obama signed into
law the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA), which,
among other things, provides for a nine-month subsidy of COBRA premiums
for employees who are involuntarily terminated. The law also subjects
employers to additional administrative and notice requirements.
The COBRA Subsidy
The subsidy for COBRA coverage (excluding health
FSAs) is available to individuals who were involuntarily terminated
from employment between September 1, 2008 and December 31, 2009. The
COBRA subsidy also extends to spouses and dependents who are qualified
beneficiaries.
Specifically, beginning March 1, 2009, eligible
individuals will only be required to pay 35% of the COBRA premium for
coverage under a prior employer's health plan instead of the full
amount. Depending on how the plan is funded, the employer or health
plan (payor) pays the remaining 65% of the premium. The payor is
reimbursed for its payment of 65% of the premium by taking a credit for
those premiums against its payroll taxes to the federal government for
current employees. If the credit is insufficient to cover the payor's
COBRA expense, then the remainder is reimbursed directly from the
Treasury Department.
Read more...
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Media General asking employees to take unpaid leave
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Employees at The Tampa Tribune , TBO.com and WFLA-Channel 8 will be asked to take 10 days of unpaid leave this year, including four days by the end of March.
To continue reading, go to: Employees at The Tampa Tribune , TBO.com and WFLA-Channel 8 will be asked to take 10 days of unpaid leave this year, including four days by the end of March.
To continue reading, go to: http://tampabay.bizjournals.com/tampabay/stories/2009/02/16/daily41.html?surround=etf
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A silver lining to this otherwise dark economic cloud? Dick, the Butcher of Shakespeare fame may finally get his wish...
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2.12.09: The Darkest Day Ever for Big Law Firms?
Posted by Ashby Jones
We
don't know if we're quite ready to answer the above question in the
affirmative, but we're getting close. What a day. The folks over at Above the Law have done yeoman's work tallying up the damage. (That is, so far. The day ain't even over.)
The day's wreckage:
- DLA Piper announced it was laying off 80 lawyers and 100 staff members in the U.S.
- Goodwin Procter announced it was cutting 36 lawyers and 38 staff members
- Dechert cut 19 lawyers
- Faegre & Benson (yesterday) axed 29 lawyers
- Rumors swirl around a number of others, too.
Update: The Law Blog learned independently that
Holland & Knight has fired 70 lawyers and 173 staff. "Today, we
began restructuring our operations to better meet the needs of our
clients and to take steps to fully respond to the adverse effects of
the current economic downturn," the firm said in a statement.
Dick, the Butcher: "The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers."
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Cheers,
Craig McMullin
AFCP
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