Health Law Advisor

On May 1, 2015, we reported on proposed regulations to the Massachusetts paid sick leave law, which becomes effective on July 1, 2015.  The regulations have not yet been adopted, and in light of the uncertainty about many provisions of the law, the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office has issued a “Safe Harbor for Employers with Existing Paid Time Off Policies.”  Under the safe harbor, any employer with a paid time off policy in existence as of May 1, 2015, which provides employees with the right to use at least 30 hours of paid time off per year, will be deemed in compliance with the ...

As we reported, last November, voters in Massachusetts approved a law granting Massachusetts employees the right to sick leave, starting on July 1, 2015.  The law provides paid sick leave for employers with 11 or more employees and unpaid sick leave for employees with 10 or fewer employees. While the law set forth the basics, many of the details, which have differentiated the various sick leave laws across the country, were not previously specified (e.g., minimum increments of use, frontloading, documentation).  The Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office (“AGO”) has set ...

Ever since 1974, when the NLRB (“Board”) first took jurisdiction over health care institutions, the Board has paid particular attention to the impact of union organizing on the delivery of healthcare in this industry in general  and of acute care hospitals in particular.  When the Act was first amended in 1974, Congress stated its objective at that time was to avoid a “proliferation of bargaining units” as one method to limit the inevitable disruption created by numerous elections and negotiations while at the same time balancing employee’s opportunity to exercise its ...