On Friday, November 13, 2020, California, Oregon and Washington issued additional orders related to COVID-19. The three orders are worded similarly and address Non-Essential Travel (travel that is considered tourism or recreational in nature). The orders provide that:
On October 21, 2020, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) updated its website as to the definition of close contact. The definition has been modified to “Someone who was within 6 feet of an infected person for a cumulative total of 15 minutes or more over a 24-hour period starting from 2 days before illness
On April 16, 2020, California Governor Gavin Newsom issued Executive Order N-51-20, which mandated paid COVID-19–related sick leave for food sector workers who provide services to an entity with 500 or more employees nationwide. The Executive Order was noteworthy because the eligibility for leave was not dependent on employee status—contractors were deemed eligible as well.
Last week, Governor Newsom signed Assembly Bill 1867 (AB 1867), which codified the preexisting supplemental COVID-19 paid sick leave for food sector workers and related handwashing requirements and amended enforcement provisions for violations of paid sick leave requirements.[1]
We have updated and added to our frequently asked questions (FAQs) for U.S. employers relating to COVID-19 and developments in employment law based on the September 8, 2020 update to the EEOC’s What You Should Know about COVID-19 and the ADA, the Rehabilitation Act, and Other EEOC Laws. These updates also include new Q&As regarding
On September 11, 2020, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) announced revisions to its implementation regulations for the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA). As stated in the DOL’s News Release, “[t]he revisions do the following:
On August 3, 2020, a court in the Southern District of New York vacated portions of the Department of Labor’s Regulations Regarding the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) (discussed here). In the wake of that decision, employers have scrambled to understand how to proceed and wondered whether the DOL would update or revise
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) issued new questions and updated its guidance on September 8, 2020, covering a range of topics including keeping employee medical information confidential while employees are working remotely, whether employers can ask employees who are coming into the workplace if they have family members with COVID-19, and navigating
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) issued a Field Assistance Bulletin No. 2020-5 (Bulletin) in late August 2020 that addressed the subject of an employer’s obligation under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) to exercise reasonable diligence in tracking the hours of work for non-exempt employees working remotely. The Bulletin recognizes the need under the FLSA for employers to pay employees for all hours worked, including work performed at home. But it also recognizes that when non-exempt employees work remotely at locations not controlled by the employer that it may be difficult to define what an employer actually knows with regard to the time worked.
As California continues to navigate the quagmire of reopening the state amidst an unrelenting global pandemic, Governor Gavin Newsom unveiled a new “Blueprint for a Safer Economy” (Blueprint) to determine when businesses can and cannot open. The new metric employs a color system, where each county is assigned a color based upon “risk-based criteria.” Under the system, lower risk activities or sectors can open sooner and high-risk activities and sectors cannot open until later phases. The scheme is as follows:
On August 8, 2020, President Trump issued a memorandum directing the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security to make available additional unemployment payments for those who lost their jobs as a result of COVID-19. Upon a grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, states and territories may choose to provide eligible claimants up to