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NEWS April 23, 2003 No Use-it-or-lose-it Policies Allowed Once an employee has earned vacation, treat it like money in the bank for that employee, never to be taken away. The California courts and the state Labor Code prohibit a "use-it-or-lose-it" policy, in which employees lose earned vacation that is not taken by a specific time. You may not require employees to forfeit accrued vacation for any reason. Alternatives to "use-it-or-lose-it" policies that the Labor Commissioner approves are reasonable caps on vacation and cash-out policies. An exception to this rule exists for employees under a collective bargaining agreement. If a collective bargaining agreement is the basis for earned vacation, the Labor Commissioner will not prohibit "use-it-or-lose-it" provisions. However, if you eventually pay the vacation time, the Labor Commissioner may impose waiting time penalties on late payment. January 20, 2000 Daily Overtime Law Becomes Effective AB 60, which becomes effective Jan. 1, requires that overtime be paid for hours worked in excess of eight hours in one day, rather than the current overtime paid after 40 hours in a week. While flex time has only been available in California since 1998, its popularity among employers and workers is universal. In spite of significant opposition from the business community, legislation was enacted early this year (1999) to return, with a few exemptions, to the old overtime rules, unless employees vote to adopt alternative work schedules. Many employers in California are scrambling to determine what, if anything, this law means to them and their employees. You can obtain a complete description from the Department of Industrial Relations at the following location: http://www.dir.ca.gov/DLSE/AB60update.htm Sick Leave May be Used for Family Care Under new California Labor Code Section 233, after Jan. 1, California employers who provide sick leave will be required to allow employees to use a portion of their sick leave to care for a sick child, a parent or a spouse. Employees will be allowed to use at least one-half of their annual sick leave for such purposes. All conditions and restrictions placed by the employer on the use of sick leave shall also apply to leaves to attend to the illness of the employee's child, parent or spouse. It is presumed that this would relate to notification and verification policies as well as policies related to the minimal increments in which sick leave can be used. Under the statute, child and parent are defined to include biological, foster, adoptive, step and legal ward or guardian. December 9, 1999 New Rules on 401(k) Monies The Department of Labor recently released new mandates regarding the allowable time period for depositing 401(k) monies. Contributions of employee funds must be made no later than the 15th business day of the month following the month in which they would otherwise have been payable to the participant in cash. Penalties for rule violators include non-compliance issues leading to significant fines or possible plan disqualification. If you serve as both the collector of funds and a third-party administrator, you may be legally obligated to make your payment at the time of withdrawal. Check with your 401(k) administrator. November 11, 1999 INTRODUCING
A SPECIAL OFFER FROM THE PAYROLL OFFICE
IN
CELEBRATING THE NEW MILLENNIUM FREE
CHECKS FOR AN ENTIRE MONTH You’ve
got a business to run. Your
customers depend on you to provide quality products and services. Your
employees depend on you to provide timely, accurate payroll. Now you’ve
got professionals to support you! The
Payroll Office is a local firm that can take the payroll burden from you. The Payroll
Office provides local employers with full service payroll processing.
We will relieve the burden of writing payroll checks, keeping up with
changing payroll tax provisions, filing payroll tax returns and preparing W-2's
for employees at year end. We
are offering FREE CHECK processing
for an entire month to all new customers. This is a dramatic
savings! The only condition is that
you must have three or more employees with paychecks issued weekly, biweekly or
semimonthly. So continue
to do what you do best - providing your customers with quality products and
services. Let The Payroll Office
provide your employees with accurate and timely payroll.
You can depend on it.
August 5, 1999 YEAR
2000 COMPLIANCE STATEMENT We would like
to inform you that the Payroll Office has undertaken and completed a
comprehensive Year 2000 review. The Payroll
Office's processing system is currently ready to accept date field
changes for the Year 2000 (Y2K). Preparations
for this date have been under extensive analysis to ensure our clients’ peace
of mind as the subject of Y2K has, and will, continue to escalate throughout the
year. All the hardware at the Payroll Office has been tested and passed using multiple testing
programs which include the following tests:
The software used by the Payroll Office, the suppliers used for Tax Pay and File
and Direct deposits, and other programs have all been contacted and have
forwarded to our office Y2K Compliance Statements stating they are ready for the
next century. These letters are all
on file, available upon request for any of our clients. As the
Payroll Office system changes through out the year an ongoing effort will be
maintained to test for Y2K Compliance and to notify our clients of any further
developments. |