As California businesses begin to reopen and return employees to physical workplaces, there are numerous safety measures for employers to consider implementing to minimize the spread of COVID-19. On May 14, 2020, California’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health (“Cal/OSHA”) issued its “Interim General Guidelines on Protecting Workers from COVID-19.” The new guidelines
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On May 4, 2020, California Governor Gavin Newsom announced that the state would begin the process of allowing various businesses to reopen physical locations as part of a four-phase plan that seeks to gradually re-establish business operations in light of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. While a welcome sign for many businesses and employees, the phased
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On April 29, 2020, the City of Los Angeles passed the COVID-19 Worker Retention Ordinance to protect workers amid the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic by requiring certain businesses within the City to adhere to worker retention provisions whenever a change in control occurs within two years following the declaration of emergency due to
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On May 6, 2020, California Governor Gavin Newsom issued Executive Order N-62-20 (the “Order”), which states employees that test positive for COVID-19 are presumed to have contracted the virus in the course of employment for purposes of awarding workers’ compensation benefits, if certain requirements are met.
As noted in our previous blog, workers’ compensation
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On April 29, 2020, the City of Los Angeles issued a new ordinance, entitled “COVID-19 Right of Recall,” that requires covered employers in Los Angeles to offer priority hiring for laid off rank and file workers, and to allow those workers 5 business days to accept or deny the offer of employment. Specifically,
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Los Angeles County enacted an ordinance requiring employers with 500 or more employees nationally and that are not otherwise covered by the federal Families First Coronavirus Response Act and Governor Newsom’s Executive Order N-51-20 to provide employees with supplemental paid sick leave for COVID-19 related reasons. The City of Los Angeles previously passed a similar
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As every employer grappling with the global pandemic can attest, preventing and combatting occurrences of COVID-19 are paramount considerations. This concern has become all the more pronounced, and visible to the nation, with the increasing reports of COVID-19 outbreaks at food processing facilities throughout the country. In response to this potential threat to the nation’s…
As previously noted in our blog, workers’ compensation is an emerging area of concern for employers during the COVID-19 crisis. For New York employers in the heart of the pandemic, the question of whether one of their employees will contract COVID-19 in the workplace is less a matter of “if” than “when.” Infected employees
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While essential workers continue to make their way into the office amid the pandemic, many other Californians have been ordered to shelter in place. At first blush, non-essential businesses may view this as leading to a decrease in workers’ compensation claims because they no longer have employees physically reporting to the office. There could be
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The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) updated its guidance concerning COVID-19, affirming an employer’s ability to medically test its employees for COVID-19 before allowing employees to enter the workplace. The new guidance expands employers’ options to include medical tests that detect the presence of the COVID-19 virus – not just temperature checks. The
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On April 14, 2020, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors unanimously passed the Public Health Emergency Leave Ordinance (PHELO). Mayor London Breed signed the ordinance into law on April 17, 2020, making it effective immediately. The PHELO was created in an effort to fill the gap left by the federal Families First Coronavirus Response…
On April 16, 2020, Governor Newsom signed Executive Order N-51-20 (the “Order”), which requires hiring entities to provide up to 80 hours of supplemental paid sick leave to food sector workers for reasons related to COVID-19.
Newsom notes that food sector workers are on the front lines of the pandemic as essential critical infrastructure workers,
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On April 14th New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy signed Senate Bill 2353 into law. The law delays the application date of the New Jersey WARN amendments passed earlier this year and removes mass layoffs due to COVID-19 from coverage under the statute.
As detailed in a prior blog, New Jersey previously enacted a
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In an effort to fill the gap left by the federal Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA), the San Jose City Council unanimously passed the COVID-19 Paid Sick Leave Ordinance (“Ordinance”) on April 7, 2020. The Ordinance requires covered businesses operating in San Jose to provide Covered Employees with at least 80 hours of paid
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As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, more than 16 million Americans have filed for unemployment in the last three weeks—approximately 10% of the domestic workforce. This unprecedented number has challenged our unemployment insurance system. This article discusses how unemployment agencies will administer benefits provided under various federal and state laws recently enacted in response…
As communities continue to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic and additional guidance is issued by the Centers for Disease Control (“CDC”), more state, county and municipal orders are being issued to combat the spread of the virus and protect the safety of residents and workers. Many of these new or amended orders include a greater
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