LiUNA Pension Fund Administrator Laid to Rest

Monday, December 20, 2010

Washington D.C - LiUNA Pension Fund Administrator Mark W. Speakes was laid to rest last Thursday in Northern Virginia. Mark passed away on December 9, 2010 after a courages five-year battle with cancer.
“Mark was a dedicated father, a committed husband, and he was always a true credit to the trade union movement and every LIUNA member”, said LIUNA General President Terry O’Sullivan.
Mark joined LIUNA in 1988. He served as Benefits Specialist and Assistant Fund Administrator. He guided LIUNA’s Industrial Pension plans and oversaw the merger of LIUNA’s staff and affiliates plans.
In 2005, Mark was diagnosed with cancer. For the next five years he defied expert prognosis and odds, continuing to work and providing an ever upbeat attitude which inspired everyone around him.
“Mark was a good man. He never hesitated to visit Local 792 every time I called upon him”, said Chris Darker, Local 792 Business Manager. “He had a positive attitude all the time even in the midst of the recent economic challenges in pension funding and his cancer. I will miss him”, said Darker. Mark last visited UPEC Local’s in 2008.
Mark, only 45 years old, leaves behind his wife Tammy, and three children, Chelsey, Joshua and Jordan. Mark is also survived by five siblings and all his many loving friends and colleagues.

FMLA / CFRA (Training Bulletin)

Friday, December 17, 2010

A slight change to the interpretation of what constitutes a son/daughter under the FMLA.  Before, a person could only qualify for FMLA for children who were biological, adopted, foster, stepchildren, legal ward or for whom the adult stood “in loco parentis” (basically meaning a person who stood in as if they were a parent but had not gone through any formalities to achieve legal status). 

The D.O.L. changed their interpretation of what is required to stand “in loco parentis”.  Where previously this required BOTH financial support of a child and day-to-day care or responsibility, now EITHER is acceptable to establish an “in loco parentis” relationship.

In practical terms, this means that children of one parent in a cohabitation arrangement (living together but unmarried) are likely included for care coverage under the FMLA rights of the OTHER cohabitating adults if those other adults are EITHER in part responsible for the child(ren) financially OR provide care for them on a day-to-day basis.  (This effectively removes any requirement that a domestic partnership which are included in the definition for children under the California Act (CFRA) - same sex or opposite sex - be registered in order to claim FMLA rights).

CalPERS CEO Lauds Benefits of Health Reform

Friday, December 10, 2010

SACRAMENTO, CA - Anne Stausboll, Chief Executive Officer of the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) today sent a letter to U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius affirming the pension fund’s success in implementing aspects of national health care reform measures. In her letter, Stausboll told Sebelius that CalPERS has supported the reforms under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act from its inception and believes the measures will dramatically shape the future of health care in the nation.
“Many health care elements we have championed are now reality,” she said, “Such as guaranteed issue policies; eliminating co-pays for preventive services; bans on pre-existing conditions; stabilizing health premiums; supporting innovative delivery system reforms; and patient protection against medical bankruptcies are now major components of health care reform. “We believe that key elements of national health care reform represent a fundamental and positive shift in the way health care will be purchased and delivered in the United States.”
Stausboll shared some details of CalPERS implementation successes. They included:
Adding 27,000 young adults to CalPERS health plans under the provision that allows the extension of dependent coverage to adult children up to age 26 - at a less than 1% premium increase - and ensuring CalPERS health plan participants were well-informed of the provision;
Removing lifetime dollar value limits on health plan benefits from the few remaining CalPERS plans that had them; and
Using the reimbursement of approximately $200 million under the Early Retiree Reinsurance Program - based on more than 115,000 early retirees and their families - to help reduce premium increases by more than 3 percent for our non-Medicare health plans.
Stausboll ended, “We thank you for expeditiously implementing important health care reform provisions and we are committed to being a collaborative partner in ensuring the smooth and successful implementation in the months and years ahead.”
A copy of the letter can be found under National Health Care Reform on the CalPERS Responds website at http://www.calpersresponds.com.
CalPERS is the largest purchaser of public employee health benefits in California, and the second largest public purchaser in the nation after the federal government. CalPERS provides health benefits to more than 1.3 million State and public agency active and retired members and their families at an annual cost of $6.1 billion. 
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For additional CalPERS news and information, visit our Press Room at:

http://www.calpers.ca.gov/index.jsp?bc=/about/press/home.xml

Tax Cuts and Unemployment Insurance

Tuesday, December 07, 2010

By MERRILL GOOZNER, The Fiscal Times

Mounting concern about the nation’s faltering economy largely drove President Obama and Republican leaders to reach agreement late Monday on a plan to expand the Bush-era tax cuts into a two-year, $984 billion stimulus plan that will reduce taxes for nearly every citizen and business in America.

“My first job is to make sure the economy is growing, that we’re creating jobs out there and that people who are struggling are getting some relief”, Obama said at a Tuesday afternoon White House press conference. “And if I have to choose between having a protracted political battle on the one hand but those folks being hurt, or helping those folks and continuing to fight this political battle over the next two years, I will choose the latter.”

The deal would extend George W. Bush administration tax breaks for families at all income levels for two years, extend emergency jobless benefits through 2011 and cut payroll taxes by 2 percentage points for every American worker through the end of next year.

While political analysts were quick to declare winners and losers in the White House negotiations, the only real losers appear to be the nation’s deficit hawks, who only last Friday reveled in what appeared to be the fiscal commission’s bipartisan consensus to reduce deficits by nearly $4 trillion over the next decade. If the Obama-GOP package passes Congress, budget balancers will see the debt grow by an additional $1 trillion, because none of the proposed tax breaks and spending will be offset by cuts in other areas.

Leading economists say that more stimulus is needed to stimulating the economy to prevent an anemic recovery from stalling entirely.
The compromise plan announced Monday would achieve its stimulus through the tax code, not through additional investment in infrastructure, research and human services which is preferred by liberals.

Even Federal Reserve Board chairman Ben Bernanke made a rare appearance on national television last weekend to warn that additional policy measures were needed after a weak showing in the private sector last month drove unemployment to 9.8 percent. “At the rate we’re going, it could be four, five years before we are back to a more normal unemployment rate.” Bernanke said on CBS’s 60 minutes.”

While some liberal Democrats may revolt over extending tax cuts for households earning over $250,000 for an additional two years - a clear reversal of President Obama’s pledge to hold the line on additional tax cuts for the rich most will probably endorse the package, according to some analysts.

The compromise creates a $120 billion payroll tax holiday for people earning less than $106,800 a year; the middle class would benefit from the overall extension of the Bush tax cuts; the agreement extends unemployment benefits for the long-term unemployed for a total of 112 weeks; and it gives businesses that invest in depreciable plants, machinery and software a major new tax break, worth an estimated $146 billion in reduced corporate taxes next year.

“President Obama won policies that will put or keep money in the pockets of the families of the unemployed and middle and low-income families, which will increase spending and create jobs,” said Lawrence Mishel, president of the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute. http://www.epi.org/ “That’s what a payroll tax holiday for workers, unemployment benefits and the various tax credits will do: create customers for business and create jobs, which is our biggest need right now.”

While it was largely overlooked during the Bush-era tax cut extension debate, families earning less than $88,000 a year were due to be hit with a tax increase after January 1 when the so-called “make work pay” tax credit, which was part of the president’s original stimulus package, expired. Overall, taxes for those families would rise by $60 billion a year.  That clearly weighed heavily on White House negotiators.

Now, those families are slated to get a two-percentage point cut in payroll taxes, which is worth at least $400 for workers earning $20,000 a year and up to $2,136 for workers earning at the maximum amount taxed for Social Security, currently $106,800. In addition, the government will credit the Social Security trust fund for all the lost tax revenue, which means the insolvency date for the nation’s retirement program won’t be shortened by the tax holiday.

Most people earning less than $100,000 spend almost everything they earn according to economists. But whether this new tax package will succeed in lifting the economy onto a sustainable growth path is already being hotly debated.

OPM Updates Sick Leave Policies

By Emily Long December 6, 2010

WASHINGTON - Federal employees now will have expanded access to sick leave to care for injured service members or family members exposed to communicable diseases.

According to a final rule in Friday’s Federal Register, government employees beginning Jan. 3, 2011, will be allowed to substitute up to 26 weeks of sick leave for unpaid leave accumulated under the 1993 Family and Medical Leave Act to care for injured or ill service members. Agencies also can permit up to 30 days of advanced sick leave to be used for this purpose.

In addition, the rule defines when sick leave can be used in cases for communicable diseases, including the flu. Sick leave will be authorized only in situations the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention believes will threaten public health. Agencies must wait for guidance from CDC or the Office of Personnel Management to administer sick leave for these purposes, the rule says.

Update to Downloads

Recently updated files are in our downloads section - the current City of Yreka MOU has been added to our file listings.  Get a copy by visiting our “Downloads” section.