Posts Tagged ‘FEMA’

It’s fresh Health Wonk Review and news roundup day

Thursday, September 2nd, 2010

Grab a coffee and head on over to Hank Stern’s InsureBlog, where he’s posted Health Wonk Review: In the Here and Now. He describes it as a “minimalist” style, which means more meat, less potatoes!
And in other noteworthy news this week:
Twittering insurers – Terry Golesworthy features an interesting post about how insurers are using Twitter, along with lists of insurance leaders by number of followers, by growth and by activity. He observes, “Twitter continues to be used by most insurers to provide soft marketing messages about promotions, sponsorships and customer endorsements. Other activities include financial quizzes, insurance related education materials, warnings regarding impended natural disasters and Facebook announcements. Some insurers do respond publically to customer questions but, largely, this is not the significant activity.” In the comments on his list, insurance agent Ryan Hanley (@AlbanyInsurance) notes that agencies are actually driving the social media movement, and that is based on their using the channel for relationships rather than as a broadcast tool.
Safety is #1 – At The Pump Handle, Celeste Monforton posts that “just in time for the Labor Day holiday,” a new study has been released by the University of Chicago’s National Opinion Research Center, indicating 85 percent of workers rank safety on the job as their top labor standard.
Misclassification – State efforts focusing on employer misclassification continue to be strong and there appears to be a deep vein to mine.

  • In California, Country Builders Inc is paying a whopping $3.9 million in back pay, fines, and payment to the work comp fund as a settlement with a suit filed by the Attorney General for various labor law infractions, including misclassification to avoid workers comp payments. In addition, the company is barred from working on government-funded public works for three years.
  • The New York construction industry should go on notice. Governor Patterson has just signed the Construction Industry Fair Play Act, “…which creates a clear litmus test to distinguish the difference between a worker and an independent contractor. It also provides a method to clearly define which business on a construction project is responsible for which workers. Finally, for the first time in State history, it imposes monetary and criminal penalties specifically for the act of employee misclassification on construction projects.”
  • A new Wisconsin law strengthens enforcement tools for targeting construction misclassification. The law will take effect on January 1.
  • While the construction industry has been a major area of focus, other industries such as the trucking industry have also been targets of probes. And then there is the continuing FedEx driver saga, which my colleague has posted on frequently.

Other employment law litigation – Wal-Mart has appealed for a review by the Supreme Court in a discrimination suit the largest employment discrimination suit in U,S. history. The decade-old case involves more than a million current and former female workers. Steven Greenhouse of The new York Times discusses the issues in the case and the potential $1 billion or more in damages that Wal-Mart could face if the Supreme Court allows a class action suit to proceed.

September is National Preparedness Month – FEMA has designated September as and offers emergency preparation resources for employers. At the Risk Management Monitor blog, commercial risk management expert Brian Smith replies to Emily Holbrook’s questions about disaster preparation and business insurance.