“ERISA is the Employment Retirement Income Security Act of 1974. The law protects employee rights in such vested benefits as retirement plans, but “also applies to such nonvested plans as health insurance,” Harder says.
Workforce restructuring — shifting jobs and hours to avoid the requirement to provide health insurance, for example — is the key. “If an employee is eligible for health care benefits under an existing plan (but) the employer curtails working hours specifically to create ineligibility (for coverage) … an ERISA complaint may be actionable,” Harder wrote in a C3 Advisors blog (c3advisors.wordpress.com).
The Department of Labor enforces ERISA rules.”
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