Employers

Some prominent health insurers, including industry giant UnitedHealth Group Inc., are not participating in California's new state-run health insurance market, possibly limiting the number of choices for millions of consumers. UnitedHealth, the nation's largest private insurer, Aetna Inc. and Cigna Corp. are sitting out the first year of Covered California, the state's insurance exchange and a key testing ground nationally for a massive coverage expansion under the federal healthcare law. Meanwhile, the biggest insurers in the state - Kaiser Permanente, Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield of California - are all expected to participate in the state-run market for individual health coverage.

The central question in the Michael Jackson wrongful-death trial is who employed Dr. Conrad Murray: Jackson or concert promoter AEG. In testimony that appeared to undercut AEG's claims that the doctor worked for Jackson, a company executive said Thursday that negotiations over Murray's $150,000-a-month contract did not include the singer or his advisors. He also said that the performer's camp never saw the drafts of the agreement. The admission by Shawn Trell, AEG Live's senior vice president and general counsel, appeared to help the Jackson family members who insist the company negligently hired and supervised Murray, now serving time for involuntary manslaughter after giving the singer a fatal dose of the anesthetic propofol.

Call it retirement anxiety, or maybe recession obsession. For all of their married life, Patrick Webster, 63, and Susie Martin, 54, have been extremely frugal. Webster and Martin, who both work at Marymount College in Rancho Palos Verdes, have been stashing away their combined income at an enviable rate - more than 25% - for retirement. Together they have more than $1 million in investments and no debt. But rather than feeling reasonably secure about their financial future, they dread a return of hard times.

Dr. Conrad Murray, who administered the fatal dose of the anesthetic propofol to Michael Jackson, did not have a signed contract with the promoter of the London concerts by the singer, who died two weeks before they were scheduled to begin. Whether the contract was valid is a major issue in the wrongful death suit Jackson's mother and three children have filed against Anschutz Entertainment Group. Murray, who worked with the singer for two months to prepare him for the concerts, signed his contract the night before Jackson died, but neither the singer nor a company executive signed.

NEW YORK - The next wave of union protesters isn't blue collar. It's lawyers, paralegals, secretaries, helicopter pilots, judges, insurance agents and podiatrists. These white-collar workers are not exactly the picture of the labor movement, but they are becoming a more essential part of it as they turn to unions for help in a tough economy as bosses try to squeeze out more profits. "Employers have been downsizing, asking employees to take on larger roles, making them work more hours," said Nicole Korkolis, spokeswoman for the Office and Professional Employees International Union.

In staffing his organic-oriented Fresco Community Market in Montecito Heights early last year, Jon Murga looked for employees in an unlikely place: skid row. He hired 11 people then and one this month through a job development program at the Los Angeles Mission. Most were trying to stay off drugs, alcohol or both as they struggled to exit the ranks of the homeless. Some were trying to put criminal convictions in the past. To Murga, 47, it is the right thing for employers in the community to do: "It's possible to change the conversation about the homeless situation.

In 1986, lawmakers decided the problem of illegal immigration had to be dealt with. More than 3 million people were living in the United States after crossing the border illegally or overstaying their visas. A new law signed by President Ronald Reagan gave legal status and a path to citizenship to most of those unauthorized residents - helping many secure a slice of the American dream but also giving fuel to critics who sought to turn "amnesty" into a pejorative. Less than 30 years later, the number of immigrants living in the country illegally is thought to have nearly quadrupled, and the freighted baggage of amnesty looms over new efforts to reform the nation's immigration laws.

Thousands of employers in California and across the country are slashing expensive doctors and hospitals from their insurance rosters in a move to hold down rising healthcare costs — a trend that is gaining favor with corporate bosses, if not the rank and file. The savings on insurance premiums — nearly 25% in some cases — are gained when companies switch their health plans to "narrow network" HMOs that offer fewer choices of medical providers. California, with nearly 21 million people in health maintenance organizations, is driving the rapid expansion of these networks.

Employers are frequently using monitoring software to make their employees more productive at work, according to an article in the Los Angeles Times, part of a series about the "Tougher Workplace. " Although the Constitution speaks of a "reasonable" expectation of privacy, this is largely not applicable at private employers. Courts are still sifting through the changes that technology has caused in the workplace and figuring out what employers can and can't do. The exchange below aims to help clarify some issues.

Major employers across the country, eager to curb fast-rising healthcare costs, are opening their own state-of-the-art health centers where doctors and nurses provide medical care to workers often just steps from their desks. The cost-cutting strategy has been embraced by dozens of companies — typically large employers that are self-insured and pay their own medical claims, including Walt Disney Co., Qualcomm Inc. and American Express Co. Many of the health centers are full-service medical offices equipped with exam rooms, X-ray machines and pharmacies.

Massing the heavy legal artillery of 1st Amendment principles, a federal appeals court has ruled that the federal government can't order businesses to post signs informing employees that they have a right to join a union and to bargain for better wages. It's a troubling ruling. The case stems from a 2011 decision by the National Labor Relations Board that employers must "post notices to employees, in conspicuous places," informing them of their rights under the National Labor Relations Act, and include the information in electronic mailings.

WASHINGTON - Employers cannot be required to post a notice that tells their workers they have a right to join a union and bargain for better wages, a federal appeals court ruled in the latest setback for the National Labor Relations Board. The so-called poster rule would have required more than 6 million private employers to post a one-page notice in a prominent place. Labor leaders hoped it would help stem the long decline in union membership in the private sector. Only about 7% of private-sector employees belong to unions.

The jobs of the nation's citizen soldiers are supposed to be safe while they are serving their country: Federal law does not allow employers to penalize service members because of their military duties. Yet every year, thousands of National Guard and Reserve troops coming home from Afghanistan and elsewhere find they have been replaced, demoted, denied benefits or seniority. Government agencies are among the most frequent offenders, accounting for about a third of the more than 15,000 complaints filed with federal authorities since the end of September 2001, records show.

Obstacles to legal equality for gay and lesbian Americans are crumbling fast. Congress has repealed the "don't ask, don't tell" policy that prevented gay service members from being open about their sexuality. Nearly a dozen states have legalized same-sex marriage, and a stampede of U.S. senators - including two Republicans - has endorsed marriage equality. Activists are hopeful that the Supreme Court will overturn the Defense of Marriage Act, which denies federal benefits to legally married same-sex couples.

Many part-timers are facing a double whammy from President Obama's Affordable Care Act. The law requires large employers offering health insurance to include part-time employees working 30 hours a week or more. But rather than provide healthcare to more workers, a growing number of employers are cutting back employee hours instead. The result: Not only will these workers earn less money, but they'll also miss out on health insurance at work. LIVE CHAT: Join us at 3 p.m. Pacific with your questions and comments Consider the city of Long Beach.

Paul Tanaka, the Los Angeles County undersheriff accused of fostering a culture of jailhouse abuse, offered a searing critique of his boss Sheriff Lee Baca, calling him a confused and erratic leader who cares more about politics than public safety. In his first extensive comments since being pressured to step down, Tanaka told The Times that Baca pushed subordinates to hire his friends and relatives and undermined public safety to settle political spats. For example, Tanaka said Baca demanded that all sheriff's deputies be removed from joint crime-fighting operations with the FBI as payback for a federal investigation of the jails - an order Tanaka said he refused to carry out. Tanaka, who is considering a run against Baca in 2014, said he was speaking out because he feels he has been made a scapegoat for many of the agency's problems.

Over the last few years, our economy has faced unprecedented challenges, and millions of Americans have lost their jobs. For two years, the unemployment rate has hovered around 9%. While 26 million Americans are unemployed or underemployed, 7 million individuals work illegally in the United States. On top of all the challenges Americans face today, it is inexcusable that Americans and legal workers have to compete with illegal immigrants for scarce jobs. Fortunately, there is a tool available to preserve jobs for legal workers: E-Verify.

SACRAMENTO - A bipartisan bloc of lawmakers - after being personally lobbied by Gov. Jerry Brown - approved an overhaul of California's $17-billion workers' compensation insurance program that promises to hike benefits for injured workers and cut costs for employers. On the last night of the legislative session, lawmakers gave final approval to a bill boosting payments to permanently disabled victims of on-the-job accidents by about $740 million a year and handing employers a major break on workers' comp insurance premiums - set to go up as much as 18% in January.

SACRAMENTO - California's $8-an-hour minimum wage needs to go up, says Watsonville Democratic Assemblyman Luis Alejo. And he may be getting the votes he needs to make it happen. But don't count on it; Alejo has tried this before. Alejo is the author of AB 10, which would give the Golden State its first minimum wage increase since 2008. The bill would raise it 25 cents an hour next year, 50 cents in 2015 and an additional 50 cents to $9.25 an hour in 2016. In 2017 and annually thereafter, hourly pay would be adjusted upward automatically, based on the state's inflation rate.

Premiums for employer health insurance in California jumped 170% over the last decade, more than five times the 32% increase in the state's inflation rate. That escalation in premiums has taken a toll on employers' willingness to offer health benefits, according to an annual survey by the California HealthCare Foundation. The report found that 60% of California firms offered health benefits last year, down from 73% three years ago.  As costs keep climbing, many businesses are asking workers to contribute more toward their health insurance or accept fewer benefits.