Insights Archive

Finding Religious Accommodations in Rhode Island’s COVID-19 Vaccination Requirements for Healthcare Workers

Healthcare and healthcare-related employers have not just been at the heart of the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, they have also recently been on the battleground in the fight over mandatory vaccination. Multiple states and locales have enacted some form of a mandatory COVID-19 vaccination requirement. Many of these vaccination mandates are directed at healthcare workers and state employees. These mandates vary by locality as to where the mandates apply, to whom the mandates apply and in what contexts, and when exemptions apply. And, of course, the federal mandates announced in September 2021 loom in the background.

Janice G. Dubler Cherry Hill (NJ)
Philadelphia Author

Sean J. Oliveira St. Louis Author

Expiration of Philadelphia Public Health Emergency Leave Law

On June 15, 2021, Governor Tom Wolf’s administration certified the results of the May 2021 municipal primary election, and thereby formalized the approval of an amendment to the Constitution of Pennsylvania giving lawmakers the broad new power to extend or end disaster emergency declarations. Because the Philadelphia Public Health Emergency Leave law was set to “expire upon the expiration of the Proclamation of Disaster Emergency of the Governor of Pennsylvania related to the COVID-19 pandemic,” and the legislature voted on June 10, 2021, to end the disaster emergency declaration, it is now safe to say that the Philadelphia Public Health Emergency Leave law is no longer in effect.

Janice G. Dubler Cherry Hill (NJ)
Philadelphia Author

Brandon R. Sher Philadelphia Author

Emergency Paid Sick Leave Returns to Philadelphia

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.”

Janice G. Dubler Cherry Hill (NJ)
Philadelphia Author

Brandon R. Sher Philadelphia Author

Philadelphia Expands Entitlement to Paid Sick Leave for Workers Not Covered by FFCRA

On September 17, 2020, six months after Mayor Jim Kenney issued Executive Order 3-20, a Declaration of Emergency Related to the Known and Potential Presence of the Novel Coronavirus COVID-19 in Philadelphia, he signed into law Bill No. 200303, a temporary amendment expanding the City of Philadelphia’s paid sick leave law—officially known as the Promoting Healthy Families and Workplaces Ordinance—to establish public health emergency leave for individuals not covered by the federal Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA).

Janice G. Dubler Cherry Hill (NJ)
Philadelphia Author

Brandon R. Sher Philadelphia Author

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