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Employers Required to Use Revised Work Comp Notice Poster in September

The Massachusetts Department of Industrial Accidents announced that employers must use and display a revised employee notice form, starting Sept. 16. Employers are required to fill out the posters by providing…




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Court Upholds Award for Postinjury Mental Health Treatment

The Virginia Court of Appeals upheld an award of benefits for a worker’s mental health treatment after her on-the-job injury. Case: Virginia Commonwealth University v. Miller, No. 1859-23-2, 08/20/2024, unpublished. Facts: Sabrina…




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TDI Posts Updates on Office Closures Due to Storm

The Texas Department of Insurance said it closed seven Division of Workers’ Compensation field offices along the Gulf Coast in response to Hurricane Beryl. The department said it closed both field…




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DWC Posts Proposed 2025 Research Agenda

The Texas Division of Workers’ Compensation posted for public comment a copy of the proposed 2025 agenda for its Workers’ Compensation Research and Evaluation Group. The group is proposing three projects…




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DWC Posts 2025 Audit Plan

The Texas Division of Workers’ Compensation posted its audit plan for the fiscal year ending in 2025. The DWC said 2025 audits will focus on timely and accurate benefit payments, timely…




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Court Strikes Down Statutory Prohibition on Workers Posting Recordings of IMEs Online

The Washington Court of Appeals held that a law prohibiting injured workers from posting to social media recordings of their independent medical examinations is an unconstitutional prior restraint on free…




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DWC Posts 2025 Health Care Provider Assessment Plan

The Texas Division of Workers’ Compensation will evaluate health care providers on two measures as part of its 2025 performance-based oversight assessment process. The DWC said it will assess providers on…




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DWC Adds Attorney Consultation Notice to Workplace Poster

The California Division of Workers’ Compensation updated a poster employers are required to display in the workplace to add language advising people of their right to consult an attorney following…




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PCRB Posts Reminder of Deadline to Request 2009 Assessment Refund

The Pennsylvania Compensation Rating Bureau announced that eligible carriers can request refunds of 2009 work comp security fund assessments through Feb. 24. Gov. Josh Shapiro in July signed HB 2310, a…




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DWC Posts Rulemaking Notice for Fee Schedule, Related Documents

The Florida Division of Workers’ Compensation posted a notice of development of rulemaking to implement the most recent edition of its health care provider fee schedule and related documents. The DWC…




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Hen and Chickens Cycle: In 1882, Edward Burstow Designed The Pentacycle Specifically For Delivering Post

Victorian Sussex showcased remarkable displays of engineering ingenuity, where inventors tackled various cycling challenges from bumpy unpaved roads to the impracticalities of woolen clothing with boundless enthusiasm and creativity. h/t: vintag.es Among these innovators was Horsham architect Edward Burstow, who in 1882 patented the ‘pentacycle,’ an ingenious machine featuring a large central wheel driven by […]




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Whimsical Cigarette Ad Posters Illustrated by Juan Carlos Huergo in the Early 20th Century

Early 20th-century cigarette ads glamorized smoking as a symbol of sophistication, elegance, and modernity, using stylish imagery and catchy slogans like “More doctors smoke Camels” and “It’s Toasted” to imply quality and safety. These advertisements, often featuring celebrities, marketed smoking as part of a glamorous lifestyle, making it appear desirable and socially acceptable despite the […]




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How to Find Guest Posting Sites: Your Step-by-Step Guide to Building Authority and Reach

Learn how to find guest posting sites with effective strategies to boost SEO, build authority, and reach new audiences in your niche.



  • Point of View

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Illustrator Tutorial: Design a Retro VHS Cover Inspired Poster

The retro artwork that used to appear on old VHS tape covers has become an iconic design style that is often mimicked today. Follow along with this tutorial to create your own fun retro style poster based on the artwork of those VHS cassette covers. We’ll use Illustrator to construct the design with text and […]

The post Illustrator Tutorial: Design a Retro VHS Cover Inspired Poster appeared first on Spoon Graphics.




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Duotone Neon Light Space Poster Photoshop Tutorial

Follow along with this photo compositing Photoshop tutorial to create a surreal space scene with a vibrant neon light effect. We’ll use assets from a free sample pack of the Ultimate Universe Creator product that’s exclusively available for Spoon Graphics viewers to download. I’ll show you how to compose the various space-themed graphics to make […]

The post Duotone Neon Light Space Poster Photoshop Tutorial appeared first on Spoon Graphics.




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Handling Spelling Mistakes with Postgres Full Text Search

Background #

Postgres Full Text Search (FTS) is a great way to implement site search on a website running Postgres already, without requiring additional infrastructure.

On a recent engagement with a client, we were deciding between Postgres FTS and ElasticSearch. Ultimately we chose FTS because we could spin it up without having to add extra infrastructure, as we would with ElasticSearch.

Since the project was written in Ruby on Rails, we were able to use the excellent PgSearch gem to implement FTS in ActiveRecord.

Multisearch #

As we wanted a general site search, we needed to utilize multisearch. Multisearch combines multiple ActiveRecord models into one search 'document' table that you can search against. For example, if a user searches for some search term, and the search is configured for multisearch, then every single model that we mark as multisearchable will be searched for that term at the same time. See here for more detail.

Search Features #

PgSearch allows for different search features, tsearch, trigram, and dmetaphone. The default is tsearch, which uses the built-in Postgres Full Text Search.

This was great for our use case, since it also comes with highlighting, a feature that was required. The highlighting is from a field returned by Postgres FTS, where it returns the text around the search term for context and bolds the search terms.

Spelling Mistakes #

Unfortunately, tsearch does not handle misspelled words. However, as I mentioned before, PgSearch allows for other search features!

And trigram is a feature that can be installed via a Postgres extension (pg_trgm) that does just that.

Trigram #

  • The idea behind trigram search is to split pieces of text into sets of three-letter segments, and compare the sets to one another
  • If two trigram sets are similar enough, we assume there was a spelling mistake, and return the document with the correctly-spelled term.
  • As a quick example (ignoring whitespace): Consider the word Viget. Viget would make trigrams:
[vig, ige, get]
  • Now, consider our evil twin agency, Qiget. They would make trigrams
[qig, ige, get]
  • The two trigram sets match very closely, with only one of the trigrams not being the same. Thus, if we were to compare these with pg_trgm, we could reasonably tell that anyone typing 'Qiget' must have been actually looking for 'Viget', and just misspelled it.

Working Trigram into our existing solution #

PgSearch allows us to use multiple search features at once, so we can use tsearch and trigram side by side. Note that we cannot just replace tsearch with trigram due to needing some features in tsearch that are exclusive to it. Here is what an example configuration might look like.

PgSearch.multisearch_options = {
  using: {
    tsearch: {
      prefix: true,
      highlight: {
        MaxFragments: 1
      }
    },
    trigram: { 
      only: [:content]
    }
  }
}

Trigram (and timelines) causing issues #

While it was easy to slot Trigram into our multisearch, it caused a pretty serious performance hit. We were seeing 50x-75x slower searches with both features combined than with just tsearch. We needed to find a way to balance performance with handling misspellings

At the point that handling misspellings became prioritized, the entire search feature was almost fully QA'd and about ready to go out. There wasn't much time left in the budget to find a good solution for the issue.

This thread from the PgSearch repo sums it up pretty well – there were multiple other users that were/are having similar issues as we were. The top-rated comment in this thread is someone mentioning that the solution was to just use ElasticSearch ('top-rated' is doing a lot of heavy lifting. It did have the most likes...at two). We needed to find some sort of middle ground solution that we could act on quickly.

Postgres Documentation saves the day #

In the docs for the Trigram Postgres extension, the writers give an idea for using Trigram in conjunction with Full Text Search. The general idea is to create a separate words table that has a Trigram index on it.

Something like this worked for us. Note that we added an additional step with a temporary table. This was to allow us to filter out words that included non-alphabet characters.

execute <<-SQL
  -- Need to make a temp table so we can remove non-alphabet characters like websites
  CREATE TEMP TABLE temp_words AS
    SELECT word FROM ts_stat('SELECT to_tsvector(''simple'', content) FROM pg_search_documents');

  CREATE TABLE pg_search_words (
    id SERIAL PRIMARY KEY,
    word text
  );

  INSERT INTO pg_search_words (word)
    SELECT word
    FROM temp_words
    WHERE word ~ '^[a-zA-Z]+$';
  
  CREATE INDEX pg_words_idx ON pg_search_words USING GIN (word gin_trgm_ops);
  
  DROP TABLE temp_words;
SQL

This words table is therefore populated with every unique word that exists in your search content table. For us, this table was pretty large.

result = ActiveRecord::Base.connection.execute("SELECT COUNT(*) FROM pg_search_words").first['count']
puts result.first['count']
# => 1118644

Keeping the words table up-to-date #

As mentioned in the docs, this table is separate from your search table. Therefore, it needs to be either periodically regenerated or at least have any new words added to search content also added to this table.

One way to achieve this is with a trigger, which adds all new words (still filtering out non-alphabet characters) that are inserted into the documents table to the words table

create_trigger("pg_search_documents_after_insert_update_row_tr", generated: true, compatibility: 1)
  .on("pg_search_documents")
  .after(:insert, :update) do
  <<-SQL_ACTIONS
    CREATE TEMP TABLE temp_words AS
      SELECT word FROM ts_stat('SELECT to_tsvector(''simple'', ' || quote_literal(NEW.content) || ')');

    INSERT INTO pg_search_words (word)
      SELECT word
      FROM temp_words
      WHERE word ~ '^[a-zA-Z]+$';

    DROP TABLE temp_words;
  SQL_ACTIONS

end

Note that this does not handle records being deleted from the table – that would need to be something separate.

How we used the words table #

Assuming for simplicity the user's search term is a single word, if the search returns no results, we compare the search term's trigram set to the trigram index on the words table, and return the closest match.

Then, we'd show the closest match in a "Did you mean {correctly-spelled word}?" that hyperlinks to a search of the correctly-spelled word

Given more time, I would have liked to explore options to speed up the combined FTS and Trigram search. I'm certain we could have improved on the performance issues, but I can't say for sure that we could have gotten the search time down to a reasonable amount.

A future enhancement that would be pretty simple is to automatically search for that correctly-spelled word, removing the prompt to click the link. We could also change the text to something like "Showing results for {correctly-spelled word}".

Ultimately, I think with the situation at hand, we made the right call implementing Trigram this way. The search is just as fast as before, and now in the case of misspellings, a user just has to follow the link to the correctly-spelled word and they will see the results they wanted very quickly.




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Calling custom fields for next/previous posts

Custom fields are definitely very useful and are used on many WordPress installs. Today I’m going to show you how to easily get custom fields values outside the loop.

The post Calling custom fields for next/previous posts appeared first on WPCult.





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How To Create A Weekly Google Analytics Report That Posts To Slack

Google Analytics is often on a “need to know” basis, but why not flip the script? Paul Scanlon shares how he wrote a GitHub Action that queries Google Analytics to automatically generate and post a top ten page views report to Slack, making it incredibly easy to track page performance and share insights with your team.




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Easily Organize Your Photos with Post Order

There are many reasons why you may want to organize WordPress photos, or change the order of your photography store’s products. You can attention to older products, or increase conversions by showcasing popular items more prominently. Unfortunately, by default, changing the published date of each product is the only way to adjust the order of products in […]




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Labroots 2024 Microbiology Virtual Event Poster Winner: Laura Alguacil Cuéllar

Labroots’ virtual events are excellent ways to connect with great people and collaborate on research within your field. These events have attendees f




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Postgraduate Course in Clinical Pharmacology, Drug Development, and Regulation

Feb 20, 2025, 11am EST

The Tufts CSDD postgraduate course in clinical pharmacology, drug development, and regulation is the longest-running professional development program in the biopharma space. Now in its 52nd year, this unique annual course prepares both new and experienced drug developers, regulators, policy makers, clinical investigators, and academic researchers for success in the life sciences sector. Thousands of drug development professionals are alumni of this prestigious one-of-a-kind program. Top speakers from industry, academia, and the FDA share their expertise to create a highly stimulating and rewarding learning environment.

Location Details: Virtual event via Zoom
Open to Public: No
Primary Audience(s): Faculty, Postdoctoral Fellows, Staff, Students (Graduate)
Event Type: Conference/Panel Event/Symposium, Lecture/Presentation/Seminar/Talk
Subject: Career Development, Health/Wellness, Innovation, Medicine, Science
Event Sponsor Details: Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development
Event Contact Name: Sarah Wrobel
Event Contact Emailsarah.wrobel@tufts.edu
RSVP Informationsecure.touchnet.net…
More infocsdd.tufts.edu…



  • 2025/02/20 (Thu)

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Postgraduate Course in Clinical Pharmacology, Drug Development, and Regulation

Feb 13, 2025, 11am EST

The Tufts CSDD postgraduate course in clinical pharmacology, drug development, and regulation is the longest-running professional development program in the biopharma space. Now in its 52nd year, this unique annual course prepares both new and experienced drug developers, regulators, policy makers, clinical investigators, and academic researchers for success in the life sciences sector. Thousands of drug development professionals are alumni of this prestigious one-of-a-kind program. Top speakers from industry, academia, and the FDA share their expertise to create a highly stimulating and rewarding learning environment.

Location Details: Virtual event via Zoom
Open to Public: No
Primary Audience(s): Faculty, Postdoctoral Fellows, Staff, Students (Graduate)
Event Type: Conference/Panel Event/Symposium, Lecture/Presentation/Seminar/Talk
Subject: Career Development, Health/Wellness, Innovation, Medicine, Science
Event Sponsor Details: Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development
Event Contact Name: Sarah Wrobel
Event Contact Emailsarah.wrobel@tufts.edu
RSVP Informationsecure.touchnet.net…
More infocsdd.tufts.edu…



  • 2025/02/13 (Thu)

post

Postgraduate Course in Clinical Pharmacology, Drug Development, and Regulation

Feb 6, 2025, 11am EST

The Tufts CSDD postgraduate course in clinical pharmacology, drug development, and regulation is the longest-running professional development program in the biopharma space. Now in its 52nd year, this unique annual course prepares both new and experienced drug developers, regulators, policy makers, clinical investigators, and academic researchers for success in the life sciences sector. Thousands of drug development professionals are alumni of this prestigious one-of-a-kind program. Top speakers from industry, academia, and the FDA share their expertise to create a highly stimulating and rewarding learning environment.

Location Details: Virtual event via Zoom
Open to Public: No
Primary Audience(s): Faculty, Postdoctoral Fellows, Staff, Students (Graduate)
Event Type: Conference/Panel Event/Symposium, Lecture/Presentation/Seminar/Talk
Subject: Career Development, Health/Wellness, Innovation, Medicine, Science
Event Sponsor Details: Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development
Event Contact Name: Sarah Wrobel
Event Contact Emailsarah.wrobel@tufts.edu
RSVP Informationsecure.touchnet.net…
More infocsdd.tufts.edu…



  • 2025/02/06 (Thu)

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Postgraduate Course in Clinical Pharmacology, Drug Development, and Regulation

Jan 30, 2025, 11am EST

The Tufts CSDD postgraduate course in clinical pharmacology, drug development, and regulation is the longest-running professional development program in the biopharma space. Now in its 52nd year, this unique annual course prepares both new and experienced drug developers, regulators, policy makers, clinical investigators, and academic researchers for success in the life sciences sector. Thousands of drug development professionals are alumni of this prestigious one-of-a-kind program. Top speakers from industry, academia, and the FDA share their expertise to create a highly stimulating and rewarding learning environment.

Location Details: Virtual event via Zoom
Open to Public: No
Primary Audience(s): Faculty, Postdoctoral Fellows, Staff, Students (Graduate)
Event Type: Conference/Panel Event/Symposium, Lecture/Presentation/Seminar/Talk
Subject: Career Development, Health/Wellness, Innovation, Medicine, Science
Event Sponsor Details: Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development
Event Contact Name: Sarah Wrobel
Event Contact Emailsarah.wrobel@tufts.edu
RSVP Informationsecure.touchnet.net…
More infocsdd.tufts.edu…



  • 2025/01/30 (Thu)

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Exhibition and Poster Display

Details of the Exhibition and Poster Display are now available. [2005-04-06]




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Poster Displays

Further information about the poster displays is now available.




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Fly-poster for IWMW 2007 in SecondLife

A fly-poster for Institutional Web Management Workshop 2007 has been put up on the wall at the Eduserv Foundation Symposium 2007 and blogged about in Andy Powell's SecondLife blog. [2007-05-14]




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Guest Blog Post: Let The Students Do The Talking

Alison Wildish has written a guest blog post for Brian Kelly's "UK Web Focus: Reflections On The Web" blog [2007-06-01]




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Guest Blog Post: Social Participation for Student Recruitment

Paul Boag has written a guest blog post for "Brian Kelly's UK Web Focus: Reflections On The Web" blog [2007-06-04]




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Guest Blog Post: The Promise of Information Architecture

Keith Doyle has written a guest blog post for "Brian Kelly's UK Web Focus: Reflections On The Web" blog [2007-06-05]




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Guest Blog Post: Marketing Man Takes Off His Tie

Peter Reader has written a guest blog post for Brian Kelly's "UK Web Focus: Reflections On The Web" blog [2007-06-06]




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How AI Will Make Global Supply Chains Smarter, and Alter the Employment Landscape in a Post-Pandemic World

Mickey Chichester and Natalie Pierce examine how companies may turn to AI and robotics to mitigate disruption and some of the employment implications of such initiatives.

Supply Chain Toolbox

View Article




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New York Sexual Harassment Laws – The City Commission Publishes Poster and Fact Sheet

UPDATE: This article was updated on August 15, 2018.

In April 2018, New York State and New York City each adopted expansive legislation directed at educating employees about workplace sexual harassment and reducing the incidence of harassment claims, as we reported in our prior article

New Poster for NYC Employers:




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SLAPP Back: Colorado Court of Appeals Addresses Protection Against “Vengeful” Online Posts

On November 30, 2023, the Colorado Court of Appeals in Tender Care v.




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Why DEI Doesn’t Have to DIE: Employer Considerations for Thriving in a Post-Harvard/UNC Era

Since the United States Supreme Court issued its ruling in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard University and the University of North Carolina on June 29, 2023, striking down race-conscious admission processes in higher education, it has sent shock waves throughout the corporate community as business leaders consider the decision’s potential impact on their own diversity, equity & inclusion (DEI) initiatives.

Littler Principal Cindy-Ann Thomas and her guest, Littler Shareholder Kim Carter, explore:




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Revised Poster Requirement in Massachusetts Starting September 16, 2024

The Massachusetts Department of Industrial Accidents (DIA) has published a revised workers’ compensation Notice to Employees, which Massachusetts employers should use starting September 16, 2024.




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In Advance of July 1 Compliance Deadlines, Chicago Agency Posts Updated Guidance and Notices for the City’s Minimum Wages, Paid Leave, Fair Workweek Thresholds, and Required Notices

The Chicago Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection (BACP) Office of Labor Standards (COLS) recently posted updates to its website regarding minimum wage obligations, paid leave and paid sick and safe leave, new fair work week thresholds, and updated required labor notices. The compliance deadline for these obligations is July 1, 2024.




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Inclusion Interrupted: Charting a Path for Reconnecting, Post-COVID

One year into a global pandemic, with vaccinations underway, we are eagerly preparing for social “re-entry.” But how do the isolating behaviors that we have now perfected – in the interest of sheer survival – bode for the concept of “inclusion” in a post-pandemic world?

Littler Principal Cindy-Ann Thomas and her guest, Enidio Magel, Managing Director and Founder of the Multicultural Institute, consider:




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Gig Economy Boost Will Persist Post-Pandemic, Report Says

Michael Chichester explains how the pandemic has changed what the workforce looks like today and in the future.

Law360

View Article (Subscription required.) 




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OFCCP Quietly Extends Deadline for Submitting Objections to EEO-1 Disclosures and Reveals Intention to Post EEO-1 Data on its Website

Last August OFCCP published a notice in the Federal Register advising employers that in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, the agency was planning to produce confidential information that is ordinarily protected from dis




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Labor Enforcers’ Policy Strategies Will Get Post-Chevron Rewrite

Alexander MacDonald says without Chevron, agency rulemakings will likely stick closer to the statute or take “fewer big swings” when it comes to interpreting the law.

Bloomberg Law

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Regulatory Compliance in a Post-Chevron World: Fasten Your Seatbelts

Alex MacDonald says the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Chevron will likely impact regulatory bodies and the employers they oversee.

Corporate Compliance Insights

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Supreme Court Will Decide if Former Employees Can Sue Over Post-Employment Benefits

Ellen Donovan McCann says post-employment benefits are often the first to be amended when businesses experience budget challenges, but employers may have to take more care in changing them if SCOTUS decides that former employees can sue over those benefits.

SHRM

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