Coursework Example on Human Resource Management

Carter is entitled to a paid leave. However, due to the sake of the organizations welfare, he has a limited number of paid days off and sick leave. This is because some employees may tend to apply for long sick leaves, which leaves the organization at a loss because it is supposed to hire someone to stand in during Carters long breaks. The message passed to Jennifer regarding the benefits of giving employees hospitalization and health insurance is to give them assurance that their welfare is taken care of. Additionally, in the event of illness, the company is assured that the staff will receive treatment. Furthermore, offering employees life insurances guarantees them that in the event of death, their families will be compensated. Many employees find such insurance plans a motivating factor and they provide quality work output.

As a manager, improving employees welfare is an important element of consideration that helps increase work output. As a result, I would advise for the establishment of a day care that will help mothers and fathers working in the Carter Cleaning take care of their children while they are at work. Many parents who leave their children at home or in day care centers that are not nearby tend to think a lot about the wellbeing of their children. As a result, they remain disturbed for the greater part of the day, which reduces their ability to focus on work. Additionally, the parents will have increased job satisfaction because of the extra convenience services they receive at the workplace. Thus, I would strongly recommend for the establishment of some type of daycare for Carter Cleaning employees.

Question One: what is unemployment insurance?

Unemployment insurance is the monetary compensation given to employees who have lost their job through a fault that was not their responsibility (Dessler, 2016). The payment is made for a specific period or up until the unemployed individual finds another job. The unemployment insurance benefits are paid by state unemployment insurance programs in which the Federal law provides the guidelines for the process. The state law determines issues such as length of time benefits, the amount and eligibility for the benefit. If a worker is eligible for receiving the benefit, the compensation will range from half of the worker's earnings up to a maximum amount.

Is an organization required to pay unemployment benefits to all dismissed employees?

The Federal Unemployment Tax Act in conjunction with state unemployment agencies requires all employers to pay taxes towards state unemployment funds. This taxes paid by the employee are designed in a manner in which the benefits are only given to workers who are eligible to receive them. An example of an instance where a worker is not qualified to receive the benefits is when he or she has lost the job through misconduct (Dessler, 2016). Workers who quit their job voluntarily cannot receive the benefits although there are exceptions such as when the worker has a medically verifiable illness. In such a case the worker becomes eligible to receive the benefits.

Explain how you would go about minimizing your organizations unemployment insurance tax?

Taxes from unemployment insurance that companies pay tends to be costly therefore organizations need to find methods which they can use to minimize the organization's insurance tax. One of the ways is through helping your workers in finding new jobs. This can be done through making recommendations for them to other companies so that they would easily find jobs (Dessler, 2016). Through this, the duration in which the employee is supposed to be paid the benefits will reduce thus enabling the organization to reduce the amount of money they spend on paying unemployment tax.

Question Two: Explain how ERISA protects employees pension rights.

The Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) is a federal law that sets the minimum standards that should be followed for pension plans in the private industry. For instance, ERISA gives specifications on how long an employee can stay away from work (Dessler, 2016). That is before his benefits are affected, how long a participant has to work before they have a no forfeitable interest in their pension and whether or not the participants spouse has the right to enjoy the benefits in the event of their death.

ERISA provides three main protections to their participants. These protections include eligibility guidelines, management of funds and provisions for wrongful termination. The eligibility guidelines concern the issues that enable the workers to enjoy their benefits from the pension. It states that an employee who is 21 years old and above and has worked in an organization for at least 12 months should be able to access the benefit plan or any other pension plan (Dessler, 2016). This provision, therefore, enables workers to know their rights and how to handle such issues when a conflict arises.

The protection concerning management of funds states that an employer or an organization is responsible for the mismanagement of benefit funds. When an employer or organization is found out to have been misusing the benefit funds, they are subject to prosecution meaning that they can face charges in a court of law. This, therefore, means that ERISA protects the employees benefit funds from being mismanaged. The wrongful termination provision protects employees from being fired for the employer to prevent the workers eligibility to access the benefit plan (Dessler, 2016). This is because there may be instances where an employer may fire a worker to deliberately avoid paying the pension benefits the worker is entitled to.

Question Three: Describe the main retirement benefits

Retirement benefit refers to a type of pension plan in which an employer promises a specific payment of pension to an employee on retirement which has been already determined based on the employees history of earning, age and tenure of service. The following are the main retirement benefits:

Social security benefits are retirement benefits which are paid out monthly to retired workers and their spouses who have paid into the social security system during their working years. The security is also applicable to the individual who is permanently disabled. The provision of social security benefits states that the retirement of an individual is at 62 years (Dessler, 2016). In case of death of the beneficiary, the benefits are paid out to the dependents named. As for the employees who are disabled, there are disability payments which are made to them and their dependents.

There are also pension plans which are benefited by the participants in their retirement. They include contributory pension plan which is contributed by the employees, the noncontributory plan in which the employer makes all the contribution towards the plan, the non-qualified plan which covers for the plans which have not met requirements for favorable tax treatment. Defined contribution is also a pension plan benefit where the contributions made by the employer and employee are specified.

Question Four: What are the provisions of the FMLA?

The Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 (FMLA) is a labor law of the United States which is administered by the Wage and Hour Division of the United States Department of Labor. The labor law requires the employers who are covered to provide their employees with unpaid leave which is job-protected to attend to medical and family reasons which are qualified. Such reasons may include family or military leave, pregnancy, personal or family illness, and foster care placement of a child or adoption (Dessler, 2016). The following are the main provisions of FMLA:

1. Creating a flexible definition of serious illness or injury of a veteran who is covered where there are four alternatives in which one of them should be met. Therefore, an employee who has been injured or ill should be given some time off until he feels better.

2. Increasing the employees amount of time he might have taken for leave which is from five to fifteen days according to the military members Rest and Recuperation (R&R)

3. Creating a method which is unique for calculating leave for airline flight crew employees and ensuring that FMLA leaves usage for a reduced schedule which is taken by the employees are accounted for using an increment which is not greater than one day.

4. Creating an additional exigency leave which is qualified for those in parental care who have parents who are incapable of taking care of them-selves.

5. Permitting eligible employs to acquire certification of a service members illness from a health care provider as defined in the regulations of FMLA.

6. Extending exigency leave that is qualified to employees who have family members in the Regular Armed Forces as well as adding the requirement for military members to be deployed to a country which is foreign so that they can be on covered active duty under the FMLA.

References

Dessler, G. (2016). Human Resource Management. New Jersey: PRENTICE HALL.