Labor & Employment Law Update

As discussed in our September 9, 2021 blog, the Biden administration has directed OSHA to implement an Emergency Temporary Standard that will require employers with 100 or more employees to ensure their employees are either fully vaccinated or tested weekly for COVID-19. While employers anxiously await OSHA’s Emergency Temporary Standard and guidance on who it applies to and what it entails, federal courts are upholding vaccine mandates that employers have chosen to voluntarily implement.

In August, New York City announced it was implementing a vaccine mandate requiring ...

As soon as the Biden administration announced it would ease travel restrictions in early November, my phone began ringing non-stop and email notifications started pinging like popcorn. If you work in Human Resources, you may know what I mean because it is likely your phone and email were ringing first.

HR clients were sending the messages on behalf of their foreign national workers and students who were asking if they could travel. Questions like “Can I go home for Christmas?” and “Is it safe to travel home in late November?”

Unfortunately, while the easing of restrictions is ...

In an aggressive effort to pressure employers into complying with the Biden Administration’s promised vaccine mandate, House Democrats buried an approximate five-fold increase to OSHA fines in their $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation bill, seeking to increase the maximum fines for a “serious” citations from $13,653 to $70,000 and for “repeat” and “willful” citations from $136,530 to $700,000. The incredible fine increase stems from OSHA’s concern that employers are ignoring its COVID-19 guidance and standards because the risk of non-compliance is ...

Employers with tipped employees, take note: the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) released its long-awaited final rule on tip regulations, which was officially published on September 24 and becomes effective November 23, 2021. The final rule makes a number of changes that will impact tipped employees and their employers, including:

Civil Money Penalties

The DOL may assess a penalty  up to $1,100 per violation against employers who take tips earned by their employees – regardless of whether the violations are repeated or willful. This means a penalty could be assessed on an ...

On September 24, 2021, as instructed by President Biden’s Executive Order 14042, the Safer Federal Workforce Task Force (“Task Force”) published its COVID-⁠19 Workplace Safety for Federal Contractors Guidance. We first updated you on this Executive Order in our blog published on September 13: Who is a Federal Contractor for Purposes of the Biden Vaccine Mandate? But does the Task Force’s new guidance actually assist us in determining what federal contractors are covered under the Executive Order? Unfortunately, certainty as to who is covered by the Executive ...

As a part of Missouri’s new Victims Economic Safety and Security Act (VESSA), employers in the state with at least 20 employees must now provide unpaid leave to employees who are victims of domestic or sexual violence, or who have family or household members who are victims of the same.  Effective August 28, 2021, all covered employers are required to notify employees of their right to unpaid leave under the law by or before October 27, 2021.  The Missouri Department of Labor has published a poster which, if prominently posted, will meet this requirement. 

The new mandate is ...

Last week, the EEOC filed a federal lawsuit in Georgia against an employer that did not allow an employee with a medical condition to work from home.  Employers should carefully consider the circumstances at issue in this lawsuit when evaluating work-from-home accommodation requests as we anticipate litigation of this sort will arise more frequently in the coming months.

The employee at issue (“Moncrief”) worked as a Health Safety & Environmental Quality Manager at a pharmaceutical manufacturing facility.  She has a number of physical impairments, including chronic ...

On August 23^rd Governor Pritzker issued Executive Order 2021-20 requiring  health care workers, school personnel, higher education personnel and students, and state-employees and contractors who work at state-owned or operated congregate facilities to get their first dose of a two-dose COVID-19 vaccine series, or a single-dose COVID-19 vaccine, within 10 days and be fully vaccinated within 30 days, subject to applicable medical and religious exemptions under federal and state law.

On September 9, 2021 President Biden announced sweeping new vaccine mandates for federal employees, federal contractors, and an upcoming OSHA Emergency Temporary Standard Rule for companies with more than 100 employees.

The recent announcement that Delta Airlines will begin imposing a $200 per month health insurance surcharge on unvaccinated employees has prompted many employers to consider whether a similar surcharge may be an alternative to mandating COVID-19 vaccinations for employees.