Products March 31, 2003

Ethics Hotline Offers SOX Outlet

March 31, 2003 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - Ceridian has opened up an Ethics Hotline, a confidential telephonic service that enables employees to report Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) violations such as accounting irregularities, falsification of contracts, and embezzlement.
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Ceridian’s Ethics Hotline is also designed to go beyond the requirements of Sarbanes-Oxley and track other employee issues such as harassment, substance abuse, violent acts, and theft in the workplace, according to the firm.

Legal Requirements

Sarbanes-Oxley imposes a requirement on publicly traded SEC companies to establish formal procedures to receive, retain, and address complaints regarding accounting and auditing matters, according to Ceridian, which also notes that companies that do not have the appropriate vehicle in place by April 26, 2003, face “significant fines.”

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Ceridian’s Ethics Hotline provides a confidential, anonymous 24/7 toll-free hotline, staffed by qualified professionals, according to the firm.   Ceridian’s Ethics Hotline specialists interview callers and track incident details.   An incident report, without revealing the caller’s identity, is e-mailed to the employer on a daily basis (in the case of emergencies, the employer is notified immediately).

Whistle “Stop”

Organizations that use Ceridian’s Ethics Hotline will have a proper venue for “whistleblowers,” thus reducing the probability that an employee will instead escalate a concern to the media, lawyers, stockholders, board members, or government agencies, according to the firm.   Additionally, since Ceridian is an outside party, employees can feel comfortable calling the hotline to report possible legal and ethics violations.

Companies interested in learning more about the hotline should call (800) 729-7655, Ext. 1213.

Ceridian offers a suite of managed business solutions for HRMS, payroll, tax filing, application outsourcing, time and attendance, benefits administration, and employee effectiveness services.

Compliance March 28, 2003

8-K Blackout Disclosure Plan Put on Hold

March 28, 2003 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has said companies should continue disclosing retirement plan blackout period information in their quarterly reports for the time being.
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The notice puts on hold plans approved in January requiring companies to provide a notice to the public about said blackout periods.   Under the approved plan, retirement plan blackout information was intended to be disclosed by companies in a new section in Form 8-Ks, also referred to as a “current report,” according to a Dow Jones report.  

However, a statement issued by the Commission put the brakes on those plans because, “necessary programming to add (the pension-fund item to Form 8-K) is not yet complete.”   Therefore, companies should continue to file the disclosure in quarterly reports until the SEC announces the necessary updates to Form 8-K are ready, the agency said. No timetable was provided.

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8-K Review

>The Form 8-K is used to report the occurrence of any material events or corporate changes which are of importance to investors or security holders and previously have not been reported by the company. It is intended to provide more current information on certain specified events than would quarterly and annual reports.

The most recent rule was part of a series of administrative moves by the SEC, putting into effect a law Congress enacted last summer to combat corporate fraud and restore shaken public confidence in the integrity of corporate America.   These changes were spurred after the public downfall of Enron Corp, in which employees were blocked from selling company stock during a blackout period.

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