Employee Safety, Health and Welfare

Employee Safety, Health and Welfare Law

The objective to this work is to explain the application and implication of the following laws for the employer and specifically to examine the responsibilities of the employer under the law and what protections the law provides for employees. Examined will be the ERISA, which provides for security for pension and savings, the HIPAA, which provides for continuity of insurance benefits; and the FLSA, which regulates issues relating to payment of wages, overtime and other such issues, which are the representative of various laws established by congress to enhance the security of the American workforce.

FAIR LABOR STANDARDS ACT (FLSA)

The Fair Labor Standards Act (FSLA) 'establishes minimum wage, overtime pay, recording keeping and child labor standards" (U.S. Department of Labor, 2008) which affect both full and part-time workers in the private employment sector of Federal, State and local governments. Most jobs held by employees are governed by the FLSA however, some are not and others which are governed by the FLSA are considered 'exempt' form the overtime rules of the FLSA. Jobs governed under the FLSA are classified as exempt or nonexempt and nonexempt classifications entitled employees to being paid overtime while exempt classification do not entitled employees to receiving overtime pay. The 'salary level' test states that "employees who are paid less than $23,600 per year are nonexempt" while employees earning over $100,000 per year are generally exempt." (Chamberlain, Kaufman, and Jones, nd) the 'salary basis' test holds that an employee is a salary employees if that employee has "a guaranteed minimum' amount of money they can be sure of receiving for any workweek that the employee works. The 'duties test' under the FLSA are divided by (1) executive; (2) professional; and (3) administrative.

II. HEALTH INSURANCE PORTABILITY and ACCOUNTABILITY ACT (HIPAA)

The HIPAA are provisions of privacy under federal law which are applicable to health information "created or maintained by health care providers who engage in certain electronic transactions, health plans and healthcare clearinghouses." (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, nd) the provisions of the HIPAA "...ensure a national floor of privacy protections for patients by limiting the ways that health plans, pharmacies, hospitals and other covered entities can use patients' personal medical information." (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, nd) Key provisions of the standards include protection in the areas of: (1) access to medical records; (2) notice of privacy practices; (3) limits on uses of personal medical information; (4) prohibition on marketing; (5) strong state laws; (6) confidential communications; and (7) complaints. (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, nd)

III. EMPLOYEE RETIREMENT INCOME SECURITY ACT (ERISA)