What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Pennsylvania
I work for a small company (under 300 employees) in central Pennsylvania. We have an employee, an excellent employee, whose spouse has a rare genetic disease. The spouse needs monthly infusions of a drug in order to stay alive. The cost to insurance runs anywhere from $500,000 to $1 million annually. When the costs of the insurance go up our HR director looks for another insurance plan. So we have changed plans almost yearly.
Our HR director wanted to sever this employee and then rehire the employee as in indepentent contractor so we would not have to cover the spouse on our insurance. Please note the spouse is not disabled or on Medicare. The employee would receive a higher pay as an independant contractor to cover purchasing insurance on his own. What the employee does not realize is in order to cover his spouse immediately on another plan (even with a credible coverage HIPPA letter) would cost in the thousands montly plus there would be a high deductible. Keeping this in mind the employee would spend more than half of his monthly proposed salary on medical insurance.
My question is this, is this legal? I believe it is discrimination and severing this employee puts the company at risk for violation of the law and well as putting the company at risk for a lawsuit.
I work for a small company (under 300 employees) in central Pennsylvania. We have an employee, an excellent employee, whose spouse has a rare genetic disease. The spouse needs monthly infusions of a drug in order to stay alive. The cost to insurance runs anywhere from $500,000 to $1 million annually. When the costs of the insurance go up our HR director looks for another insurance plan. So we have changed plans almost yearly.
Our HR director wanted to sever this employee and then rehire the employee as in indepentent contractor so we would not have to cover the spouse on our insurance. Please note the spouse is not disabled or on Medicare. The employee would receive a higher pay as an independant contractor to cover purchasing insurance on his own. What the employee does not realize is in order to cover his spouse immediately on another plan (even with a credible coverage HIPPA letter) would cost in the thousands montly plus there would be a high deductible. Keeping this in mind the employee would spend more than half of his monthly proposed salary on medical insurance.
My question is this, is this legal? I believe it is discrimination and severing this employee puts the company at risk for violation of the law and well as putting the company at risk for a lawsuit.
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