Jones Walker’s Labor and Employment group frequently identifies trends impacting employers. In our recent client alert, we provided a comprehensive list of key areas employers need to understand.

Employee benefit compliance is notoriously complicated and gets more challenging every year. Some compliance lapses go undetected or unchallenged and are non-events, but others can result in legal liability to plan participants or penalties assessed by government agencies.   

Proper management of employee benefits is crucial for maintaining compliance and employee satisfaction. Common lapses in benefits compliance include: 

• Maintaining group health plan coverage for employees who are on non-FMLA covered leave, or no longer working full time, and therefore may need to be issued a COBRA notice (including disability and worker’s compensation leave)
   
• Failure to properly compute compensation for purposes of 401(k) deferral and matching contributions
   
• Rehiring employees who should be immediately eligible and vested under the employer’s 401(k) plan based on prior service, but treating them as new hires
   
• Self-funded health plans that have not completed a non-quantitative treatment limitation analysis (regarding mental health parity requirements)
   
• Lack of a prudent process for reviewing 401(k) investments and fees, risking class action litigation for breach of fiduciary duty

Our team assists clients in navigating these issues and understanding and complying with challenges. The team will highlight additional employee benefits issues and other common labor and employment hot topics over the coming weeks.