Question: Can you receive unemployment benefits while in a foreign country looking for work?
Answer: If you qualify for unemployment benefits, you may be able to receive them for a limited time while you're looking for work in another country. But you have to notify the state Labor Department before you leave, and that piece of information and other specifics will determine how long you can claim benefits while job hunting out of the country.
Here's what the department says: "If a claimant needs to leave (his or her) normal labor market to look for employment, he or she should notify the Telephone Claims Center before leaving. Specifics should be provided to the call center agent to determine if and how long the claimant can continue to claim benefits while out of the area."
Contact the Telephone Claims Center at 888-209-8124.
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Q: I work for a company with eight employees. Does the business have to notify us before it closes?
A: Unfortunately, none of the laws that require companies to notify workers ahead of a closing or mass layoff apply to companies as small as yours.
The federal WARN Act, or the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, requires private companies with at least 100 employees to notify them at least 60 days in advance of a closing or mass layoff. New York also has a WARN law, which took effect on Feb. 1. It generally applies to private employers with at least 50 workers in the state and requires at least a 90-day notice. More specifically, the law covers closings and mass layoffs affecting 25 or more employees, if the employees make up at least 33 percent of the workers at a work site. And the law covers mass layoffs involving 250 employees, regardless of the percentage of workers involved. Part-time workers aren't included.
Employers who fail to give the required notice may have to pay back wages and benefits and a civil penalty.
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Q: I work for a company that now wants to change its paid-time off policy for FMLA leaves. Currently, we do not have to use any paid time off for a FMLA leave. But the company says the law requires employees to use up their accumulated paid time off while out on such a leave. Is the company right?
A: The company isn't giving you the whole story.
The federal Family and Medical Leave Act gives companies the option of requiring employees to use their accrued paid time off while on the leave.
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"They don't have to require it but they may require it," said Irv Miljoner, who heads the Long Island office of the U.S. Department of Labor.
Employees can benefit when they have to tap into their paid time off as part of an FMLA leave. The FMLA time off then becomes a paid leave in part. The FMLA leave itself is unpaid and allows eligible employees to take up to 12 weeks off a year to attend to a personal or family medical emergency.
The drawback of making employees use their paid time off is that they may exhaust it while on the FMLA leave.
But the bottom line is that your company has the flexibility to set the policy regarding the use of paid time off during an FMLA leave.
