This week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced new, more relaxed COVID-19 protocols for fully-vaccinated individuals. Notably, among the guidance, the CDC stated that such individuals should continue to “[f]ollow guidance from individual employers.” But should employers modify their existing guidance to account for these new protocols?
Continue Reading Looser COVID-19 Rules for Vaccinated Individuals? What This Means for Employers
More Guidance from the CDC on Workplace Vaccination Programs
As individuals beyond front-line healthcare workers are becoming eligible for the vaccine, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has just released a toolkit for employers of essential workers, to join those that it previously released for medical centers/clinics/clinicians, and long-term care facilities. Although targeted for these specific employers, the resources provide information and resources that are applicable to employers generally.
Continue Reading More Guidance from the CDC on Workplace Vaccination Programs
Employers May Voluntarily Extend FFCRA Paid Leave Benefits and Receive a Tax Credit – Through March 31, 2021
The paid sick leave and family leave mandates under the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) end on December 31, 2020; however, the stimulus bill passed by Congress on December 22, 2020 permits employers to voluntarily provide those paid leave benefits, and receive the corresponding tax credit, through March 31, 2021. President Trump is expected to sign the bill into law.
Back in March, near the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Congress passed the FFCRA, which, among other things, imposed two leave mandates on employers with fewer than 500 employees: (1) a two-week emergency paid sick leave (“EPSL”) mandate for employees who are unable to work or telework due to six specific COVID-19-related reasons; and (2) a temporary expansion of coverage under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), to enable employees to take their twelve weeks of FMLA leave for school and child care closures associated with COVID-19 (EFMLA), including a ten-week paid leave component. Significantly, employers are reimbursed for the cost of the leave(s) through a tax credit.
Does the DOL Really Know Its Own FMLA Regulations?
OK, I’m a bit of a nerd about the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and its regulations. And I would expect the Department of Labor to be the same. After all, they wrote the regulations! But I feel like they might have missed the boat a bit with their recent revisions to the Final Rule implementing the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA).
Continue Reading Does the DOL Really Know Its Own FMLA Regulations?
EEOC Expands COVID-19 Guidance on Testing, Medical Inquiries, Confidentiality, Accommodations, and More
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 add Q&As about employers’ authority to require testing or ask questions about COVID-19 symptoms, confidentiality of COVID-19 diagnoses, and reasonable accommodations, as well as considerations for furloughs/layoffs, treatment of older workers. Most of this guidance was provided in the EEOC’s March 27 webinar and other resources.
Continue Reading EEOC Expands COVID-19 Guidance on Testing, Medical Inquiries, Confidentiality, Accommodations, and More
When Can Employers Require Employees to Provide COVID-19 Test Results?
In this new pandemic world, employers are grappling with many questions. One of them is when can they require employees to provide the results from any COVID-19 tests that they have taken, in the context of granting leave and returning to work.
Continue Reading When Can Employers Require Employees to Provide COVID-19 Test Results?
Federal Court Vastly Expands FFCRA Paid Leave Mandate – What This Actually Means for Covered Employers
In a decision potentially impacting all employers covered by the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA), a federal court upended some of the employer-friendly limitations set forth in the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) implementing regulations (i.e. the “Final Rule”): (1) the work-availability requirement, (2) the broad exemption for health care providers, (3) employer approval of intermittent leave, and (4) the documentation requirement. Below, we first summarize the Court’s decision and then discuss the practical effect of this decision on employers.
Continue Reading Federal Court Vastly Expands FFCRA Paid Leave Mandate – What This Actually Means for Covered Employers
COVID-19 Agency Update: CDC and Essential Workers, EEOC and Non-Discrimination, OSHA and COVID-19 Recordkeeping/Enforcement, DOL and Unemployment Compensation Under CARES, and VETS and COVID-19 National Guard Service
During the past week or so, various federal agencies have issued additional COVID-19 guidance of significance (more or less) to employers, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the Department of Labor (DOL), and the Veterans’ Employment and Training Service (VETS). We summarize these developments below.
Continue Reading COVID-19 Agency Update: CDC and Essential Workers, EEOC and Non-Discrimination, OSHA and COVID-19 Recordkeeping/Enforcement, DOL and Unemployment Compensation Under CARES, and VETS and COVID-19 National Guard Service
IRS Identifies What Documentation Can Be Required by Employers for FFCRA Leave, and Much More on Tax Credits
The Families First Coronavirus Response Act mandates that private employers with 500 or fewer employees (with exceptions for certain small employers as well as health care providers and emergency responders) and some public sector employers must provide emergency paid sick leave and emergency Family and Medical Leave Act leave for specific COVID-related reasons. The Act, however, did not address what documentation, if any, an employer could request in order to substantiate the leave and receive the tax credits that will fund the leave. The DOL initially provided guidance in its Families First Coronavirus Response Act: Questions and Answers, but subsequently retracted it, directing employers to the Internal Revenue Service for further guidance. And on the eve of the FFCRA’s effective date of April 1, 2020, the IRS finally provided such guidance.
Continue Reading IRS Identifies What Documentation Can Be Required by Employers for FFCRA Leave, and Much More on Tax Credits
Wait – the DOL Made Their FFCRA Guidance LESS Useful?!!
I don’t like it when the federal agencies don’t play fair. I previously blogged about the EEOC’s sneaky change in its position on whether sexual orientation discrimination is covered by Title VII (it revised its guidance without any kind of announcement. It was just suddenly… the exact opposite). And now, the Department of Labor has pulled the same trick with regard to its guidance on the Families First Coronavirus Response Act!
Continue Reading Wait – the DOL Made Their FFCRA Guidance LESS Useful?!!