On April 7, 2021, New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham signed House Bill 20, enacting the Healthy Workplaces Act (HWA), which will require private employers in New Mexico with at least one employee to provide paid sick leave to employees. The new law becomes effective on July 1, 2022.
On April 16, 2021, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill (SB) 93 into law. This new statute creates California Labor Code Section 2810.8 and requires that employers in certain industries make written job offers to employees whom they laid off because of COVID-19. Employees have five business days to respond and, if more than
Hospitality and event center workers received additional job rights protection under a new ordinance passed by the Minneapolis City Council. The new ordinance requires employers to recall those workers, if and when they are needed in reverse order of seniority. Ordinance No.2021-12, entitled “Hospitality Worker Right to Recall,” seeks to minimize the impact on affected employees in an industry particularly hard-hit by the COVID-19 pandemic and to stabilize the workforce.
Mandatory arbitration clauses for employment disputes have received a great deal of attention in recent years. In the First Circuit, there is now more clarity regarding the factors used to determine the enforceability of online arbitration agreements.
The degree of pandemic risk in Mexico has been steadily improving nationwide, and since March 1, 2021, none of the 32 states has been required to halt all nonessential activities under the strictest tier—called the “red traffic light”—of the federal government’s four-tiered COVID-19 traffic light monitoring system.
On Tuesday, April 6, 2021, while touring a vaccination site in Alexandria, Virginia, President Joe Biden imposed a deadline on every state to open up vaccination eligibility to all adults by April 19, 2021 (moving up the previous target date of May 1, 2021). The White House COVID-19 coordinator, Jeffrey Zients, told governors also on April 6, 2021, that more than 28 million doses of vaccines will be delivered to all of the states the week of April 4-12, 2021. The president’s directive matches Dr. Anthony Fauci’s estimate in November 2020 that the earliest a vaccine would be available for most nonprioritized Americans would be April 2021.
On April 12, 2021, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer announced that the Michigan Occupational Safety and Health Administration (MIOSHA) would extend the sunset date for the state’s COVID-19 emergency rules, which were set to expire on April 14, 2021, for six more months.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, on May 7, 2020, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) delayed the 2019 EEO-1 Component 1 data collection. On March 29, 2021, the EEOC announced that the 2019 and 2020 Component 1 data collection would open on Monday, April 26, 2021.
On April 6, 2021, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced plans to begin a comprehensive review of its regulations implementing Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, in response to President Joe Biden’s executive order of March 8, 2021, “Executive Order on Guaranteeing an Educational Environment Free From Discrimination on the Basis of Sex, Including Sexual Orientation or Gender Identity” (Executive Order 14021).
On April 9, 2021, President Joe Biden announced his intent to nominate Douglas L. Parker to be assistant secretary of labor for the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). Parker currently serves as chief of the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA).
On March 24, 2021, the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) announced a new interactive tool for obtaining tailored guidance on job-protected leave for pregnancy-related disability or to bond with a new child. The aptly-named “New-Parents Rights Advisor” is free and accessible online and intended to help employees and employers understand their rights and obligations pursuant to California law.
On April 1, 2021, the government of Ontario activated its pandemic “emergency brake,” sending the entire province out of the five-tiered colour-coded framework and into the “shutdown” zone. The province implemented these shutdown zone measures on April 3, 2021, and they will remain effective “for at least four weeks.”
Over the past three months, the Biden administration has expanded immigration benefits for foreign nationals on humanitarian grounds. Temporary Protected Status (TPS) and Deferred Enforced Departure (DED) are two such humanitarian benefits that permit certain foreign nationals to live and work in the United States with government-issued employment authorization documents.
The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom has held in Asda Stores Ltd v. Brierley and others that Asda supermarket retail employees can appoint Asda depot workers as their comparators in an equal pay claim despite their working in different ‘establishments’ of the business.
The recent decided case of Duplessis Buick-GMC Truck, Inc. v. Chauncey offers Louisiana employers a powerful cause of action against highly trusted former employees for breach of fiduciary duty—one that is akin to an action to enforce noncompete agreements or trade secret laws but without statutory constraints.
Less than a month after the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARPA) was signed into law, new U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) guidance and model forms are clearing up a number of employer concerns about the 100 percent COBRA coverage subsidy for continuing health benefits that runs from April 1, 2021, to September 30, 2021.
The Beltway Buzz is a weekly update summarizing labor and employment news from inside the Beltway and clarifying how what’s happening in Washington, D.C. could impact your business.
On April 5, 2021, Director of Ohio’s Department of Health (ODH), Stephanie McCloud, issued two new orders, including a consolidated Director’s Order for Social Distancing, Facial Coverings and Non-Congregating and a Director’s Order Rescinding Various Orders. The orders went into effect on April 5, 2021, and the Order for Social Distancing, Facial Coverings and Non-Congregating will remain in force until the ODH modifies or rescinds it.
On March 31, 2021, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed into law the Marihuana Regulation and Taxation Act (MRTA), which legalizes the adult recreational use of marijuana and revises Section 201-d of the New York Labor Law. The MRTA’s antidiscrimination employment provisions took effect immediately.
On April 2, 2021, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced updated guidance on domestic and international travel. The guidance includes new recommendations for those fully vaccinated (defined as two weeks after the second dose in a two-dose series or two weeks after a single-dose vaccine) with a vaccine that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has authorized.
On April 7, 2021, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals rendered its long-awaited opinion in Gil v. Winn-Dixie Stores, Inc., reversing a trial court’s decision against Winn-Dixie, holding that websites are not places of public accommodation under Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and that Winn-Dixie’s website does not violate 42 U.S.C. § 12182(b)(2)(A)(iii).
On March 10, 2021, nearly one year into the pandemic in the United States, the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) issued its first comprehensive guidance addressing COVID-19 protections for mine sites.
The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in numerous presidential proclamations restricting travel and entry into the United States. Likewise, since the pandemic began, the criteria for “national interest exceptions” (NIEs) has also evolved. On March 2, 2021, the U.S. Department of State issued updated criteria for NIEs relating to certain travelers from the Schengen Area, United Kingdom, and Ireland. Given the frequency of the changes, it can be difficult to track the current state of these matters. The following information is a summary of the latest updates with regard to U.S. travel restrictions.
Virginia has joined California as the second state to enact a comprehensive data privacy law. On March 2, 2021, Virginia Governor Ralph Northam signed the Virginia Consumer Data Protection Act (VCDPA) into law. The VCDPA does not go into effect until January 1, 2023, but the broad privacy mandate will have an immediate impact on compliance efforts for many Virginia businesses.
My grandmother lived by the rule that summer flowers should not be planted before spring break, no matter how much warm weather March might bring. The week after spring break would find her working furiously in her garden, sometimes catching up with her neighbors who had planted early, but more often taking a bit of satisfaction in looking over the prematurely planted and frostbitten flowers in surrounding yards. The freeze warning I just received from my smartphone app reminded me of this sage advice from this beloved, wise, and masterful gardener. But it also reminded me that Title IX claim season is now upon us.
On March 18, 2021, the Biden administration extended ongoing travel restrictions along the United States-Canada and United States-Mexico land ports of entry through April 21, 2021. The restrictions, which were previously set to expire on March 21, 2021, prohibit all “non-essential” travel from entering the United States to prevent the spread of COVID-19. These restrictions have been in effect since March 21, 2020.
There is an old saying in Washington, D.C., that personnel is policy. It is common sense: whoever is in charge of a federal agency or subagency will impart his or her own particular policy preferences on the agency’s priorities, resource allocation, and regulatory agenda. In the current hyper-partisan political environment, where the U.S. Congress has ceded much of the federal policymaking apparatus to the federal agencies, this old saying is even more appropriate. The situation is more complicated, however, when talking about agencies that are helmed by bipartisan boards or commissions. One such agency is the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), where a continuing Republican majority plays a significant role in policy developments and prevents Democratic members from completely gaining control of the agency.
Philadelphia’s newest Public Health Emergency Leave law went into effect on March 29, 2021. Unlike the prior iteration of the law that sunset on December 31, 2020, this law will stay in effect “for the duration of the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Mexico’s federal government continues to relax restrictions on business and social activities in accordance with the four-tiered national traffic light monitoring system as COVID-19 pandemic conditions continue to improve in Mexico’s states.
The Beltway Buzz is a weekly update summarizing labor and employment news from inside the Beltway and clarifying how what’s happening in Washington, D.C. could impact your business.
