Monthly Archives: May 2020

Applies to:           All Employers Effective:             April 23, 2020 The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) recently updated its “What You Should Know” website with information related to testing for COVID-19. Specifically, the EEOC says that employers may require employees to be tested for COVID-19 before permitting them to return to work. What does this entail? Employers

Applies to:           All Employers Effective:             March 20, 2020 The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) recently announced flexibility in complying with requirements related to Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification, due to COVID-19. Specifically, employers hiring remote employees who are taking physical proximity precautions due to COVID-19 will not be

Applies to:           All Employers Effective:             March 26, 2020 At the end of 2019, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) issued a final rule on regular rate requirements under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). The DOL recently published opinion letters clarifying how to calculate the regular rate in connection with the final rule. FLSA2020-3 –

The Employee Benefits Security Administration, the Department of Labor, the Internal Revenue Service, and the Department of the Treasury (“the Agencies”) recently issued a joint notification of relief, extending COBRA and ERISA deadlines and election periods. Specifically, all group health plans, disability, and other employee welfare benefit plans, and employee pension benefit plans subject to

Applies to:           All Employers Effective:             April 16, 2020 Due to the unprecedented impact of COVID-19 on the global population, OSHA recently issued a memo directing its Compliance Safety and Health Officers (CSHO) to take a practice approach in determining if an employer has made good-faith efforts to comply with safety obligations, such as training, equipment

Applies to:           All Employers with LA, MS, and TX Employees Effective:             April 20, 2020 On April 20, 2020, in Hewitt v. Helix Energy Sols. Grp., Inc., the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeal stated that an employee who is paid a daily rate is not paid on a “salary basis.” The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)

Applies to:           All Employers with AL, FL, and GA Employees Effective:             April 17, 2020 In Durham v. Rural/Metro Corp., the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeal stated that employees with a pregnancy disability must be given the same accommodations as other similarly situated employees with non-pregnancy disabilities. Specifically, the Pregnancy Discrimination Act (PDA) requires that pregnant

Applies to:           All Employers with CA Employees Effective:             May 6, 2020 Gov. Newsom recently issued an Executive Order stating that employees are presumed to have contracted COVID-19 in the workplace for purposes of receiving workers’ compensation benefits if all of the following are met: The employee tested positive for or was diagnosed with COVID19 within

Applies to:           All Employers with CA Employees Effective:             April 1, 2020 In McPherson v. EF Intercultural Foundation, Inc., the California Court of Appeal reviewed the enforceability of an “unlimited” vacation policy for purposes of paying out wages (including unused vacation) on termination. There, the employer had an informal, unwritten vacation policy in which area managers could

Applies to:           All Employers with MA Employees Effective:             April 9, 2020 The Massachusetts Dept. of Criminal Justice Information Services (DCJIS) recently issued emergency regulations modifying the process for verifying the identity of an individual for whom a background check will be run through DCJIS’s iCORI database (CORI). As part of the normal CORI process, individuals