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Western-style pay and benefit practices are on the increase in the Middle East, according to a regional survey of current practices and plans within multinational companies, recently conducted by Mercer. The survey showed the traditional focus on high basic salaries and cash allowances is shifting towards long-term incentives and "protection" benefits like pensions and medical, life and disability insurance. For details, see ¶2017F.
The Justice Department on April 17 announced that it had reached an agreement with American Airlines to settle charges that the airline failed to provide pilots with adequate vacation and sick leave benefits while on military leave. For more information, see ¶2017G.
The IRS has stated in two information letters that settlement amounts paid by an employer directly to an employee in lieu of retiree health care coverage are subject to FICA tax. Generally, the IRS Code and regulations exclude from the definition of wages payments made by an employer under a plan or system that provides for sickness or accident disability benefits. For more information, see ¶2017H.
On April 24, 2008, the US Senate passed, by a vote of 95-0, a bill designed to protect personal genetic information from misuse by employers and insurance companies. The Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA) (H.R. 493 as Amended) would prohibit employers from using individuals' genetic information when making hiring, firing, job placement or promotion decisions. It would make it illegal for group health plans and health insurers to deny coverage to healthy individuals or charge them higher premiums based solely on a genetic predisposition to a disease. For details, see ¶2017J.
The IRS has released its first periodic update to its 2007-2008 Priority Guidance Plan, which was released on August 13, 2007. For more information, please see ¶17,203Y-14.
A third-party administrator (TPA) in Connecticut has been barred from acting as ERISA plan fiduciaries by the Department of Labor (DOL). For more information, please see ¶82.
The U.S. Labor Department has obtained a federal court judgment ordering distribution of the 401(k) assets of Q.E.D. Inc. of Troy, Michigan. For more information, please see ¶81Y.
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