Beginning in January, an expanded California leave law will require employers with as few as five employees to provide up to 12 weeks of unpaid medical and family leave each year. For larger employers also covered by the FMLA, the California leave may be in addition to the 12 weeks of leave that employers already must provide under federal law, for a potential total of up to six-months of leave.
Continue Reading California Expands Family and Medical Leave Law
As Fall settles in and schools reopen, many employees with children (and their employers) are breathing a masked sigh of relief. Back to school means back to work, and back to work means increased productivity and greater job stability during a time when productivity and stability are needed.
Continue Reading With Schools Reopening, Employers and Employees Must Continue to Navigate a Patchwork of Federal and State COVID-19 Leave Laws
On August 3, 2020, the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York struck down portions of the DOL’s Final Rule regarding who qualifies for COVID-19 emergency paid sick leave under the Emergency Paid Sick Leave Act and the Emergency Family and Medical Leave Expansion Act, collectively referred to at the Families First Coronavirus Response Act. Of particular importance to employers, the Court invalidated two provisions of the DOL’s Final Rule pertaining to: (1) conditioning leave on the availability of work and (2) the need to obtain employer consent prior to taking leave on an intermittent basis.
Continue Reading Federal Court Strikes Down Portions of Department of Labor’s Final Rule On COVID-19 Leave, Expands Coverage
The Department of Labor has released a new set of “Questions and Answers” for employers under the Families First Coronavirus Response Act. The guidance supplements the temporary rule issued by DOL in April; final regulations are still forthcoming.
Continue Reading DOL Updates Guidance on Coronavirus Paid Leave Law, Addresses Business Reopenings
As part of Virginia’s overhaul of its labor and employment laws, the Commonwealth enacted Virginia Senate Bill 712, which amended the Virginia Human Rights Act to require covered employers to reasonably accommodate the known limitations of an employee as it relates to pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions, unless such an accommodation would impose an undue hardship on the employer.
Continue Reading Virginia’s Pregnancy Accommodation Law Will Require Most Employers to Update Their Policies
As Texas begins to reopen, some employers are recalling employees placed on furloughs or leaves of absences due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Department of Labor recently issued guidance to clarify that an individual who is able and available to work, but refuses to take a job offer or return from a furlough, absent one of the COVID-19-related criteria, will not be eligible for the federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance benefit under the CARES Act. On April 30, 2020, the Texas Workforce Commission issued guidance stating that, depending upon the reason for refusal, these employees may remain eligible for receipt of state unemployment benefits.
Continue Reading Texas Workers Who Refuse to Return to Work May Remain Eligible for Unemployment Benefits
On April 10, the Department of Labor published corrections to its regulation on the Families First Coronavirus Response Act and fixed an internal inconsistency regarding concurrent use of employer-provided paid time off and paid expanded family medical leave under the Act.
Continue Reading Department of Labor’s Families First Corrections Fix Contradiction on Concurrent Leave
Los Angeles (LA) Mayor Eric Garcetti has issued an emergency order modifying the City’s recently passed COVID-19 supplemental paid sick leave requirements. The prior ordinance, adopted on March 27, 2020, by the LA City Council, had required LA employers with 500 + employees nationally, to provide up to 80 hours of supplemental paid sick leave. In a nod to the instrumental role employers will play in the City’s revival in the aftermath of the coronavirus crisis, Mayor Garcetti modified the paid leave requirements in a number of key ways.
Continue Reading COVID 19: Mayor Modifies Prior City of Los Angeles Paid Sick Leave Obligations, Narrowing and Clarifying Requirements
The Department of Labor issued its Final Rule regarding implementation of the Families First Coronavirus Response Act on April 1, but it does not resolve all outstanding questions for employers.
Continue Reading Families First Regulations Provide Some Clarity, Some Confusion
On August 1, 2019, Dallas joined a host of states, cities and counties across the country when it implemented the City of Dallas’s Paid Sick Leave Ordinance No. 31181. Under the Ordinance, employers were required to provide paid sick leave to all full-time and part-time employees. While legal challenges effectively stopped the enactment of other cities’ ordinances, the Dallas Sick Leave Ordinance remained unchallenged – until recently, that is.
Continue Reading Texas Federal Court Rules Dallas’s Paid Sick Leave Ordinance Unconstitutional