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Paid sick and family leave is expanding. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, and the special pressures it has placed on parents and families, has renewed the push for mandated paid sick and family leave. Congress’ decision not to expand the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) in the latest relief package, has spurred state and local governments to renew their efforts to provide COVID-19 paid sick leave and, in some cases, permanent paid sick leave.

Also, is it safe to assume the federal government is not planning to pass a paid sick leave mandate? After all, the Federal Employee Paid Leave Act, which passed in 2019, was just expanded in October 2020. The answer is no, because all signs indicate that a paid federal leave mandate for private employers will be on the horizon during the Biden administration. But until that time comes, employers with a national or multi-state presence will need to comply with a hodgepodge of state and local laws.…
Continue Reading Paid Sick Leave Trends: States and Localities Step In Where Federal Law Falls Short

For years, employee interest in unions has dwindled. But a pandemic, persistent income inequality and high unemployment—not to mention the most pro-union Presidential administration in generations—have all converged to flip that script.

5,800 workers at an Amazon warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama are currently voting whether to join a union in an election that runs through March 29th. The current unionization efforts have captured national attention and drawn support from both sides of the aisle, including Republican Senator Marco Rubio. A win in the election would be a major victory for the labor movement. Amazon is the second-largest private employer in the United States, and it has avoided unionization at all of its U.S. facilities up to this point. Is this recent unionization effort a reflection of a larger change brewing in the labor world?

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Continue Reading Are Unions Primed for a Comeback?

As we have previously noted on this blog, a central aim of the Trump administration was to take aim at—and rescind—Obama-era labor rules. The Trump Department of Labor (DOL) took what was perceived as a consistently pro-business stance, reversing worker-friendly Obama-era rules and issuing new rules favorable to employers. With the proverbial pendulum now swinging back towards worker protections under the Biden administration, two rules with a significant impact on employers are likely to change: independent contractor/employee classifications, and the “joint employer” doctrine.…
Continue Reading The DOL Announces Plans to Rescind Two Final—and High-Impact—Rules

Forget speculation about what is to come: the Biden administration has already acted to unravel the Trump legacy in employment and labor regulation—and to expand worker protections.

Join us on April 15, 2020 at 12:30 p.m. ET for a complimentary webinar, where we will take a deep dive into the regulatory changes immediately impacting your…

On Friday March 12, 2021, Governor Cuomo signed into law legislation which requires that beginning March 12, 2021, all New York employers must provide up to four hours of paid leave per COVID-19 vaccine injection. Below are the salient features of the new law:

Who is covered?

All employees irrespective of employer size or industry.

What amount of leave are employees entitled to?

Up to four hours off per vaccine injection, paid at the employee’s “regular rate of pay.”

The law does not specifically address how much time an employee is entitled to if the vaccine requires two injections, but the law is drafted as permitting leave “per vaccine injection,” thus employees who receive a two shot vaccination could be entitled up to eight hours of paid leave.

When does the law expire?…
Continue Reading NY Employees Granted Up to Four Hours of Excused Leave Per Vaccine Injection

The EEOC recently released its Enforcement and Litigation Data for Fiscal Year 2020, which ran from September 2019 to September 30, 2020—6 months before (September 2019 – March 2020) and 6 months during the COVID-19 pandemic (March 2020 – September 2020)—and several interesting trends emerged. Looking back, it is hard to say if the trends we see now would remain the same if everything hadn’t come to a complete halt exactly one year ago. Regardless, the EEOC started a new fiscal year on October 2020, and with the pandemic still raging on we can look to last year’s litigation data to provide hints about what we might expect as we go forward.…
Continue Reading Litigation Data: 6 Months With and 6 Without COVID-19

On January 20, 2021, the New York State Department of Labor issued new guidance on the state’s COVID-19 sick leave law, which clarifies employees’ leave entitlements and expands employers’ obligations under the law.

As a reminder, New York’s COVID-19 sick leave law provides paid and unpaid sick leave, with access to expanded paid family leave and temporary disability, for employees ordered to quarantine or isolate as a result of COVID-19. The amount of leave and entitlements depends on the size of the employer and its net income. We provided an overview of the law and its requirements here.…
Continue Reading NY Expands COVID-19 Paid Leave

On December 27, 2020, the President signed into law the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 (the “Act”), the latest major piece of legislation passed by Congress in response to the coronavirus pandemic. This advisory describes certain provisions of the Act affecting retirement plans and other employee benefits.  In a separate advisory, we described the Act’s impact on health and welfare plans, including health and dependent care flexible spending arrangements.

Relief from Partial Terminations for Retirement Plans

When a retirement plan experiences a partial termination, affected participants must become fully vested in their accrued benefits. Ordinarily, the Internal Revenue Service uses a rebuttable presumption that a partial termination occurs in a plan year in which there is a 20% or greater reduction in the number of participants. Under the Act, a plan will not be treated as having a partial termination during any plan year which includes the period beginning on March 13, 2020, and ending on March 31, 2021, if the number of active participants covered by the plan on March 31, 2021 is at least 80% of the number of active participants covered by the plan on March 13, 2020.

Special Disaster Relief for Retirement Plans

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Continue Reading New Stimulus Legislation Affects Retirement Plans and Other Employee Benefits

In 2020, California enacted several new laws affecting employers and their employment policies and procedures. While some of these laws are already in effect, others go into effect over the course of the next few months and years.

Laws That Took Effect in 2020

Workers’ Compensation COVID-19 Liability

By signing SB 1159 into law on September 17, 2020, California Governor Newsom codified his earlier issued executive order, which states that under certain circumstances, when an employee tests positive for COVID-19, there is a rebuttable presumption that the employee contracted the virus while at work and, therefore, said illness is covered by the employers’ workers’ compensation insurance coverage.…
Continue Reading 2021 Employment Law Spotlight: California

Last year, several major employment laws were enacted in the State of Illinois, and specifically in the City of Chicago. Employers in Illinois and/or Chicago should be reminded of these laws for 2021. Here are just a few of the highlights:

  • The Illinois Human Rights Act (“IHRA”) was amended to cover “single-employee” employers and to require employers to report to the Illinois Department of Human Rights (“IDHR”) all adverse judgements and rulings relating to harassment and discrimination;
  • Employees covered by the Chicago Fair Workweek Ordinance now have a private right of action against employers for violations of the law;
  • Chicago Enacts COVID-19 Anti-Retaliation Measures; and
  • Class action lawsuits under the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (“BIPA”) are expected to continue to rise in 2021.

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Continue Reading 2021 Employment Law Spotlight: Chicago and Illinois