Employees Must Receive Notice of COBRA Rights

Q: I was laid off recently. I only had dental and life insurance coverage, so am I entitled to COBRA benefits?

--M.K., Lake Forest

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A: The federal COBRA law (the Consolidated Omnibus Benefits Reconciliation Act) requiring continuation of health insurance applies only to medical, dental and vision benefits. It does not apply to life, disability or long-term care insurance.

By law, your employer is required to give you notice of your right to continue your dental benefits within 60 days of the end of your coverage. If you are interested in continuing your dental benefits, you should contact your employer to make sure that it gives you that notice and the election form that you need to complete for such coverage.

If your employer fails to provide you with the documents, it is subject to fines and taxes.

If you don’t receive the documents from your former employer, you can contact the Labor Department office in Pasadena for assistance.

--Kirk F. Maldonado

Employee benefits attorney

Riordan & McKinzie

A Cut in Travel Reimbursements

Q: Most of the employees at our company must travel as part of their work assignment. We used to get 21 cents per mile as reimbursement for this travel. Now management has decided to give everyone a travel allowance that is related to the area each person serves rather than reimbursing us for the amount of travel needed or actually used. This cuts down on paperwork and, coincidentally, also cuts down on the amount paid for employee travel.

Is this legal? Will we be taxed on this travel allowance because it isn’t related to actual mileage traveled?

--A.L., Long Beach

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A: Whether you will be taxed on reimbursed mileage expenses depends on several factors, according to Joe Courtois, a Lake Forest accountant.

If your employer has an accountable reimbursement plan as defined by the Internal Revenue Service, reimbursed travel expenses are not counted as gross income and are not taxed. But reimbursement cannot exceed reasonable travel expenses. For 1998, the maximum amount for reasonable travel expenses is 32.5 cents per mile.

If your employer does not have an accountable reimbursement plan, or if the reimbursement for your mileage expenses exceeds 32.5 cents, these reimbursements will not be treated as exempt from income.

Besides the tax issue, there also is a legal one.

According to the California Labor Code, an employer must reimburse an employee for all reasonable expenses incurred in performing the duties of that business. Thus, if you can show your employer that your reasonable travel expenses are greater than the amount it has decided to reimburse you, the employer is legally obligated to pay you that additional amount.

Of course, if your travel expenses are greater than the employer wants to pay, it might require you to choose cheaper transportation or limit your authorization to travel.

If your employer does not reimburse you for the full reasonable expenses of your travel and you don’t want to make an issue of it, you can still claim a deduction for such expenses to the extent that they exceed 2% of your adjusted gross income.

--Don D. Sessions

Employee rights attorney

Mission Viejo

Boss Expects Personal Errands

Q: I was just hired as an assistant for a man who is nice to work for but who expects certain favors from me because his previous assistant of many years did them. For instance, she would pick up his cleaning, and sometimes would pick up his child from day care.

I do not believe that this type of errand-running is part of my job but think my boss was so spoiled by his former assistant that he is ignorant about what an executive assistant should do.

I would rather “retrain” him than lose my job, but how do I gently explain that the chores he is hinting at are not appropriate? I think he believes that he could find someone who would be willing to do these things for him as part of her job--and he may be right.

--A.L., Pasadena

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A: You need to be direct with your boss.

A good way to bring up the subject is to focus the discussion on your job duties. If there is an existing job description, refer to that. If no description exists, it is time to clarify your agreed-upon duties in writing.

At some point in the discussion, you must bring up the errand-running done by the former assistant. You should make it clear that you don’t think this is part of your job or a good use of your time. And it isn’t.

Using an executive assistant to run errands means your boss is paying someone a lot of money to deliver his laundry. Point this out. Also mention that running errands makes you feel as if he does not respect your talents, abilities and training.

Obviously there is some risk here, but I don’t think you’d be happy performing errands that you believe are demeaning and that should not be part of your job.

--Ron Riggio

Director, Kravis Leadership Institute

Claremont McKenna College

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If you have a question about an on-the-job situation, please mail it to Shop Talk, Los Angeles Times, P.O. Box 2008, Costa Mesa, CA 92626; dictate it to (714) 966-7873; or, e-mail it to shoptalk@latimes.com. Include your initials and hometown. The Shop Talk column is designed to answer questions of general interest. It should not be construed as legal advice.