Sixth Circuit Holds Employers cannot shorten time frame to file Title VII Discrimination Claims

Date: December 31, 2019

The federal Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals recently held that employers cannot reduce the time employees have to file a charge alleging Title VII employment discrimination under the Civil Rights Act of 1964.  The court found that contractual provisions and clauses that shorten Tile VII’s statute of limitations 300-day filing time frame are unenforceable.

Title VII prohibits discrimination by an employer on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, and national origin, and requires employees to first file a discrimination complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).  The statutory deadline requires charges to be filed within 300 days of the alleged unlawful employment action, and cannot be changed by contract.  After a charge is filed, the EEOC can investigate the allegations, or take administrative remedial measures to resolve the issue (such as mediation).  Alternatively, the EEOC can grant the employee a right-to-sue letter, giving the employee a chance to sue the employer outright in court on their own.  If an employee receives this letter, they have ninety (90) days to file a lawsuit in federal court against their employer.

In the Sixth Circuit case, the Plaintiff’s employment contract contained a provision waiving her right to sue if she waited longer than six (6) months following a discrimination event to file a claim.  The lower federal district court initially adopted the employer’s deadline-shortening clause, but the Sixth Circuit reversed the decision on a case of first impression, stating “[W]here statutes that create rights and remedies contain their own limitation periods, the limitation period should be treated a substantive right . . . [a]nd this type of substantive right generally is not waivable in advance by employees.”  The court distinguished Title VII’s statute of limitations from those under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) or Section 1981 claims in that those statutes rely on general limitation periods created by other statutes.  Title VII’s statute of limitations to bring a discrimination claim is found within its own text.  The court also held that Title VII created a “uniform, nationwide system using ‘an integrated, multistep enforcement procedure.’”  The court rejected the employer’s policy of imposing contractual limitations on Title VII’s statutory remedies because it would disrupt Title VII’s uniform national procedures.

The Sixth Circuit oversees federal district courts in Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, and Tennessee.  Nevertheless, this case provides context to federal questions and interpretations of federal authority, and provides a framework of considerations should you have a business practice that is any state.

VW Contributor: Ryan Coufal
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Why Consider a Wrap Plan related to your Employee Benefits?

A Wrap Plan is a single welfare benefit plan that combines employee health and welfare benefit plans into one plan. A Wrap Plan can save employers time, filing costs, and ease compliance with reporting and disclosure rules.

The Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) provides an employer with the option to offer different types of welfare benefit to its employees:

• Medical, surgical, or hospital care or benefits, or
• Benefits in the event of sickness, accident, disability, death or unemployment, or
• Vacation benefits, or
• Apprenticeship or other training programs, or
• Day care centers, or
• Scholarship funds, or
• Prepaid legal services

ERISA requires welfare benefit plan to be codified in a written plan document, to include the following content:

• Benefits and eligibility, and
• Funding of benefits, and
• Procedures for allocating and delegating plan responsibilities, and
• Plan amendment and termination procedures, and
• Designation of named fiduciary, and
• Required provisions for group health plans, such as HIPPA compliance.

Employers must also provide employees with a Summary Plan Description (SPD) alerting them about their eligibility to participate in the plan.  Many employee welfare benefit plans are provided through insurance, and the companies providing coverage will have documents relating to the plans.  However, those documents are typically drafted to comply only with applicable insurance laws without being ERISA-compliant.

A Wrap Plan bundles the ERISA health and welfare benefits and includes all required disclosures. Rather than amending multiple documents after a new law is passed that affects a plan, an employer can make a single change to the Wrap Plan. Additionally, if an employer has plans that have 100 or more participants or are otherwise subject to the filing requirements to file Form 5500, a Wrap Plan also makes this administrative filing easier too. Rather than filing a separate Form 5500 for each health and welfare pan, a Wrap Plan allows the employer to file a single Form 5500 for all benefits covered by the Wrap Plan.

A Wrap Plan is an effective ERISA compliance strategy that allows employers to reduce the amount of time and cost involved in administering various health and welfare benefit plans.

© 2019 Vandenack Weaver LLC

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Legacy ERISA Regulation Triggers Fiduciary Acknowledgement and Disclosures from Plan Advisers

By Monte Schatz

The Department of Labor’s fiduciary rule became effective June 9, 2017.  A whole new set of client disclosures will be required for advisers who previously were not operating under the fiduciary standard.  Interestingly, many of these disclosure requirements are not mandated by the fiduciary rule itself, but under a regulation that was part of the Employment Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 commonly referred to as ERISA.

29 C.F.R. § 408(b)(2) requires certain pension plan service providers to disclose information about the service providers’ compensation and potential conflict of interests.   Ironically, this regulation was introduced originally as an interim rule in 2010.  It was published as a final rule on February 3, 2012.  The intent and purpose of the regulation was to assist plan fiduciaries in assessing the reasonableness of compensation paid for services.  Also, the disclosure requirements are designed to assist plan fiduciaries to act prudently and solely in the interest of the plan’s participants by defraying reasonable expenses of administering the plan and avoiding conflicts of interest.

From 2012 to the present day, brokers and other non-fiduciary providers to ERISA retirement plans largely didn’t disclose they were fiduciaries.   However, with the institution of the fiduciary rule the status of those types of advisers have been elevated to the fiduciary standard which triggers the new disclosure requirements.  This subjects those groups to covered provider status.  The three major categories of covered service providers include:

(1) fiduciary investment managers and advisors,

(2) record keeping platforms and broker/dealers, and

(3) providers of other types of services that also receive revenue sharing payments                   or other “indirect” compensation other than from the plan or plan sponsor

The groups that fall under the provisions of 408(b)(2) must provide updated disclosures to plan fiduciaries within 60 days from the date of which the covered service provider is informed of such a change in status.   The 60 day standard is vague as it doesn’t define whether it is June 9^th, 2017 or if the 60 days begins to run from the first day an adviser makes an investment recommendation post-June 9^th.   The general consensus is to take the conservative approach and commence providing updated disclosure immediately and assume the 60 day clock runs from June 9^th, 2017.

For advisers who previously have operated under the fiduciary standard the 408(b)(2) requirements will be “business as usual”.  For those advisers that are new to the fiduciary standard it is imperative that they provide the required disclosures in a concise and understandable one page format.   Previous plan adviser agreements that placed disclosures in multiple documents will no longer satisfy the disclosure requirements that are a critical part of the fiduciary rule.

© 2017 Vandenack Weaver LLC
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SOURCES:

http://www.investmentnews.com/article/20170608/FREE/170609941/the-disclosure-401-k-advisers-may-be-missing-under-the-dol-fiduciary?utm_source=Morning-20170609&utm_campaign=investmentnews&utm_medium=email&utm_visit=655100

http://www.investmentnews.com/article/20120202/FREE/120209978/labor-department-unveils-kinder-gentler-fee-disclosure-regs

http://webapps.dol.gov/federalregister/PdfDisplay.aspx?DocId=25781

U.S. Supreme Court Interpretation Permits Thousands of “Church Plans” – Including Many for Hospitals and Health Systems – to Remain Exempt from ERISA

On June 5, 2017, the United States Supreme Court unanimously adopted a “broad” interpretation of the exemption allowed under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (“ERISA”) for “church plans.”   The decision effectively permits thousands of retirement plans adopted by church-affiliated organizations – including numerous hospitals, schools and social-service organizations – to remain exempt from most ERISA requirements.

Plaintiffs in the case of Advocate Health Care Network v. Stapleton argued that a “narrow” interpretation of the “church plan” exemption was appropriate, and that they were damaged by their employers failing to comply with ERISA’s various requirements designed to protect employee retirement savings.  Advocates of the “narrow” interpretation argued that only plans actually established by a church should be eligible for the exemption.

A split among the United States Courts of Appeal between the “broad” and “narrow” interpretations of the exemption had left plan sponsors and participants in an uncertain state where the applicable plan was maintained by a church-affiliated group and not established by the church itself.

A considerable number of plans in question related to church-affiliated hospitals and health systems.  A “narrow” interpretation would render such plans subject to ERISA.

In an 8-0 decision authored by Justice Elena Kagan, the Supreme Court concluded that principles of statutory interpretation favored the conclusion that Congress chose language indicating a “broad” exemption.  The “broad” exemption had been employed in interpretive materials, advisory opinions and private letter rulings of the Internal Revenue Service and Department of Labor, so the decision eliminates, for now, the uncertainty that had arisen with respect to plans that had relied on said interpretation.

© 2017 Vandenack Weaver LLC
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IRS Issues Tax and Reporting Relief for Proposed Fiduciary Standard Consistent with Department of Labor Regulations

By Monte Schatz

There have been a significant series of regulatory announcements and rulings related to the fiduciary duty and its application to employee benefit plans.  The final fiduciary duty rule became effective on June 7, 2016, and has an applicability date of April 10, 2017. The President by Memorandum to the Secretary of Labor directed the Labor Department to examine the impact of the fiduciary duty rule.  On March 2^nd the DOL published 82 FR 12319 seeking public comments about questions raised in the Presidential Memorandum.  The March 2^nd notice also provided that a 60-day delay in implementation would be effective on the date of publication of a final rule

The Principal Transactions Exemptions and the accompanying Best Interest Contract provisions, included as part of the fiduciary duty rule, also have an applicability date of April 10, 2017, with a phased implementation period ending on January 1, 2018. The BIC Exemption effectively states that the fiduciary advisor must sign a “Best Interests Contract” (BIC) with the client, stipulating that the advisor will provide advice that is in the Best Interests of the client.   The Principal Transactions Exemption allows compensation for certain transactions by certain broker-dealers, insurance agents, and others that will act as investment advice fiduciaries that would otherwise violate prohibited transaction rules that trigger excise taxes and civil liability.

Most investment industry groups’ concerns regarding any non-compliance during a “gap period” of the financial fiduciary rule focused on Department of Labor and its potential civil liability enforcement provisions as outlined under ERISA.  Additional concerns were raised concerning Internal Revenue Service enforcement provisions found in Internal Revenue Code §4975 prohibited transaction rules that provides for the imposition of excise taxes for violations of that rule.

As a result of delays of the Fiduciary Standard rules, the Department of Labor published Field Assistance Bulletin (FAB) 2017-01.  FAB 2017-01 provides that, to the extent circumstances surrounding its decision on the proposed delay of the April 10 applicability date give rise to the need for other temporary relief, including retroactive prohibited transaction relief, the DOL will consider taking such additional steps as necessary with respect to the arrangements and transactions covered by the DOL temporary enforcement policy and any subsequent related DOL enforcement guidance.

In Announcement 2017–4 the IRS stated, Because the Code and ERISA contemplate consistency in the enforcement of the prohibited transaction rules by the IRS and the DOL, the Treasury Department and the IRS have determined that it is appropriate to adopt a temporary excise tax non-applicability policy that conforms with the DOL’s temporary enforcement policy described in FAB 2017-01. Accordingly, the IRS will not apply § 4975 and related reporting obligations with respect to any transaction or agreement to which the DOL’s temporary enforcement policy, or other subsequent related enforcement guidance, would apply.

SOURCES:

http://www.asppa.org/News/Article/ArticleID/8480

https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-drop/a-17-04.pdf

© 2017 Vandenack Weaver LLC
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If I Start a Business, What Employment Laws Should I Be Aware Of?

A Video FAQ with M. Thomas Langan II.

If you start a business and hire employees, there can be several employment laws that you should be aware of. Generally speaking, employment laws are on a sliding scale approach. If you only have 1 or 2 employees, your company will generally be exempt from many employment laws; however, as  your company continues to grow and expand, it will start to become subject to more and more of these employment laws.

• Employee Retirement Income Security Act. If your company offers employment benefit plans or health plans you could be subject to ERISA. ERISA governs these plans and makes sure that they are offered and implemented in a fair and financially sound manner.
• Occupational Safety and Health Administration. OSHA governs workplace safety and applies to most businesses.
• Americans with Disabilities Act. The ADA generally prohibits employers from discriminating against qualified employees or applicants with disabilities.
• Family and Medical Leave Act.  FMLA  requires certain employers to provide for job protection or unpaid leave for employees facing certain medical- or military-related events.

There are many employment laws that could apply to your business, but knowing which ones your company is subject to is very important.

© 2014 Parsonage Vandenack Williams LLC

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