May 2004 Your Questions Answered

YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED

Have a personnel-related or business tax question? Members can get free information from CBIA’s experts. The phone number is 860-244-1900.

Q: An employee who left us to go to another job was laid off there after a few months. She has filed for unemployment, and we received notice saying we may have potential liability. Why is that, when she left us voluntarily?

A: When an employee files for unemployment benefits, each employer who paid that claimant any wages during the base period is potentially chargeable for a portion of each benefit payment. Each employer’s charge is based on the percentage of base-period wages it paid to the claimant. For example, an employer who paid the claimant 27% of his or her base-period wages will be chargeable for 27% of each benefit payment made during the benefit year.

When the Labor Department (DOL) makes the first benefit payment to a claimant, it sends Form UC-280, Notice of Potential Liability, to each base-period employer. The form shows the wages paid by the employer in each quarter of the base period, and the weekly amount and the maximum benefit amount chargeable to the employer during the benefit year. The form also informs the employer that it can protest the charging of benefits to its account and gives time frames for doing so.

An employer can be relieved of charges if the claimant separated from work with the employer under disqualifying conditions. If your employee left for reasons not attributable to you — for example, to earn more money or pursue a different career — you should not be charged with her unemployment benefits as long as you protest to the DOL within the time frame specified in your notice.

If you have questions about benefit charges, call the DOL’s Merit Rating Unit at 860-263-6705.

Q: We just hired a new supervisor who has already had sexual harassment prevention training for supervisors at his last job. Do we need to put him through another training session?

A: State law requires that all employees hired or promoted into a supervisory position be trained in sexual harassment prevention within six months of assuming supervisory responsibilities at a company with 50 or more employees. An employer who has provided the required training to a supervisor after Oct. 1, 1991, does not have to provide the training again. But the Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities (CHRO), which enforces the law, says the law requires training at each place of employment, even if a supervisor has had training at a prior job. While CHRO recognizes the benefits of training obtained at another workplace, it says the intent of the training requirement is for supervisors to be instructed on the particulars of their new employer’s sexual harassment policy.

Under CHRO regulations, training updates are not required if the supervisor remains at the same job, but the agency recommends providing an update of legal interpretations and related developments concerning sexual harassment to supervisory personnel once every three years.

Periodic refresher training can be very beneficial, even if there have been no significant court decisions or statutory changes. Updating supervisors makes them better equipped to promptly and effectively intervene if a situation arises. “Prompt and effective intervention” to prevent or correct incidents of harassment is the standard demanded of employers under the law. Without relatively recent training, supervisors may recognize the need to act in a situation but be unsure of just what to do. Proper training should give supervisors opportunities to practice making decisions on how and when to intervene in various situations, and on strategies that are most likely to work.

Q: I am a tool manufacturer who buys “window” envelopes that I use to mail customer bills for the tools they buy from my company. Do I need to pay sales tax on the envelopes, since I just send them out to customers?

A: Yes. Since you are not in the business of making or reselling the envelopes, you cannot use a re-sale certificate. And although the packaging you ship your product in is tax exempt, the envelopes you use to send bills to your customers are not. The Department of Revenue Services (DRS) would treat your purchase of the envelopes as a retail sale. For more information, contact the DRS at 1-800-382-9463.