Fiona W. Ong

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As the COVID-19 vaccine has become freely available, employers have struggled with workplace vaccination protocols in the context of compliance with anti-discrimination laws, including the Americans with Disabilities Act. On May 28, 2021, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission updated its What You Should Know About COVID-19 and the ADA, the Rehabilitation Act and other EEO Laws resource to include guidance that answers many employer questions on this topic – including the use of incentives to encourage vaccination.
Continue Reading EEOC Provides Eagerly-Awaited Guidance to Employers on COVID-19 Vaccines (Including Incentives)

Well, we’re always playing catch-up with the changing agency guidance on COVID-19 – and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration just juked on its recording requirements for adverse effects to the COVID-19 vaccine. Now, employers will not be required to record such adverse reactions – at least through May 2022.
Continue Reading OSHA Changes Its Recording Requirements for Adverse Reactions to the COVID-19 Vaccine

Just over two weeks after it relaxed its protocols for fully-vaccinated individuals, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has now issued revised guidance essentially permitting those individuals to resume their pre-pandemic lifestyle, subject to any applicable and differing state and local mandates. Consistent with prior iterations of this guidance, the CDC asserts that “You will still need to follow guidance at your workplace.” So what can employers do now? Well, we’ve now updated our last blog post on this topic (and then further updated to account for OSHA’s latest pronouncement).
Continue Reading UPDATED: Back to Normal for the Fully Vaccinated? What the CDC’s Latest Guidance Means for Employers

So my partners and I have repeatedly written that, under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), employers – not employees – get to choose among available accommodations to enable an employee with a disability to perform their essential job functions or enjoy equal privileges and benefits of employment. (See here and here, for example).  But, as a federal appellate court recently explained, that principle is not without limitation – at least as to reassignment.
Continue Reading “Reassignment is the reasonable accommodation of last resort”

This week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) further relaxed its COVID-19 protocols for fully vaccinated individuals. Of significance to employers, the CDC continues to assert that such individuals should continue to “[f]ollow guidance issued by individual employers.” But what impact might these looser rules have in the workplace? We had previously offered some guidance the last time the CDC adjusted the rules, and have now updated that guidance.
Continue Reading The CDC’s Revised Rules for the Fully Vaccinated: What This Means for Employers

So said a federal court in tossing an employee’s rather cheeky claims of interference with her rights under the Family and Medical Leave Act, as well as retaliation for taking FMLA leave, when she was fired after taking a trip to Thailand – for which she had previously requested time off and was denied – while on FMLA leave.
Continue Reading “Taking a Trip Is Not Protected Activity Under the FMLA”

In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, it was a tumultuous session for the Maryland General Assembly, whose 2021 session ended at midnight on Monday, April 12. Among the many bills that passed, there were a number of significance to employers, including protection for essential workers in a catastrophic public health emergency, bereavement leave, workplace peace orders, an extension of the time in which to file complaints of discrimination with the Maryland Commission on Civil Rights, modifications to the mass layoff law, and requirements for gender diversity on boards and in executive management in order to qualify for certain state benefits, among other things.
Continue Reading New Employment Laws in Maryland – Protection for Essential Workers, Bereavement Leave, Workplace Peace Orders, and More! (And a Webinar!)

With the change in administration, the Department of Labor’s recently-issued Final Rule governing the treatment of tipped employees under the Fair Labor Standards Act was thrown into doubt. Following a formal delay of the Final Rule’s effective date of March 30, 2021, the Biden DOL has now announced that parts of the Final Rule will take effect on April 30, 2021, while other parts will be further delayed and revised, subject to public comment.
Continue Reading The DOL’s Tipped Employee Final Rule: What Is Taking Effect and What Is Not

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has issued guidance on workplace vaccination programs that reiterates and expands upon prior guidance on this topic, with the intent of increasing vaccine uptake among essential (and other) workers. According to the CDC, vaccinations benefit both employers and employees by keeping the workforce healthy, reducing absences, and improving both productivity and morale. The CDC offers specific tips on the following topics: vaccination options, on-site and off-site vaccinations, building confidence in COVID-19 vaccines, determining when employees may be vaccinated, vaccine mandates and exemptions, best practices, other considerations, and reopening the workplace.
Continue Reading The CDC’s New Guidance on Workplace Vaccination Programs; What Employers Need to Know