Workforce Bulletin

On April 29, 2020, the Los Angeles City Council simultaneously passed two ordinances in response to COVID-19 that could potentially have long lasting and far reaching impacts on applicable businesses: the Right of Recall Ordinance and the Worker Retention Ordinance. The Mayor has until May 11, 2020, to act on both of the ordinances. These ordinances, pending approval of the Mayor, will be effective 31 days from their publication date.

Right to Recall Ordinance:

While the true impact of the ordinance remains to be seen, the City Council’s claimed purpose behind the Right of Recall ...

New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy and Superintendent of the State Police Colonel Patrick Callahan (who also acts as the State Director of Emergency Management) issued orders this week lifting some closures and reiterating or clarifying others, as follows.

Administrative Order 2020-10

On April 27, 2020, in Administrative Order 2020-10 (“A.O. 10”) , Col. Callahan clarified and amended Executive Order 107 (which we wrote about here).  A.O. 10, which became effective immediately, permits the reopening of certain business operations now deemed “essential retail business,” ...

The COVID-19 pandemic and the efforts to limit its spread caused a sudden and dramatic shutdown of large sections of the U.S. economy.  Governmental shelter in place orders requiring non-essential businesses to temporarily close forced untold numbers of businesses to furlough or terminate most, and in many cases all, of their employees with little or no warning. For larger employers, mass layoffs and terminations of operations such as these, would normally trigger notification requirements under the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (“WARN”) Act (as ...

Epstein Becker Green’s Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation practice is proud to present a new "Benefits Guidance in the Time of COVID-19" webinar series. You can access these courses on your own schedule. Keep up to date with a range of benefits and compensation considerations, or obtain an overview of an important topic impacting your company.

Each webinar of this limited series will be uploaded to the firm’s Coronavirus Resource Center as well as the Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation practice page. If you would like a list of the final episodes ...

On Monday, April 27, 2020, Governor Gregory Abbott announced Phase One of his much anticipated plan to reopen Texas, while minimizing the spread of COVID-19.  Governor Abbott accompanied his announcement by issuing Texas Helping Texans: The Governor’s Report to Open Texas (“Report”), and Executive Order No. GA-18 (“EO GA-18” or “Order”), pursuant to which all retail stores, restaurants[1], movie theaters, malls, museums and libraries are allowed to reopen on Friday, May 1, 2020, with a 25% occupancy limitation.  Within shopping malls and museums, all interactive ...

Consumer complaints regarding alleged price gouging have been increasing as the COVID-19 pandemic continues. Generally, price gouging occurs when there unreasonable increase the price of a consumer good (or service) during a public emergency. Although we are facing a national emergency, except for a March 23, 2020, executive order issued by President Trump prohibiting hoarding and price gouging of certain critical supplies, there is no federal price gouging law. Although there are proposal pending in Congress to more broadly prohibit price gouging, currently, the issue is ...

In March 2020, as the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States began to emerge, state and local governments took historic steps to shut down all nonessential activity in their jurisdictions.  As of April 20, “at least 316 million people in at least 42 states, three counties, 10 cities, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico” were subject to some form of a government order or proclamation calling for all nonessential workers to stay-at-home (except for necessary trips to places such as pharmacies and grocery stores).  Whereas these critical shelter-in-place ...

As featured in #WorkforceWednesday: The COVID-19 pandemic has created a sudden imbalance in the labor market. While many employers are implementing layoffs or furloughs, other “essential” businesses are searching for additional employees to meet demand. Attorneys Nathaniel Glasser and Ian Carleton Schaefer discuss how employers can use creative approaches to address this imbalance. Read more about the strategies for employers (subscription required).

Video: YouTube, Vimeo, MP4, Instagram.

On the heels of adding Return to Work guidance to its technical assistance for employers, “What You Should Know About COVID-19 and the ADA, the Rehabilitation Act, and Other EEO Law” (discussed  here),  on April 23, 2020 the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) issued an update addressing COVID-19 testing by employers. This latest guidance acknowledges that COVID-19 presents a direct threat to the health of others sufficient to justify testing.  It cautions, however, that employers should only use tests that are “accurate and reliable.” Specifically ...

As we previously reported, last year, New York State expanded its election leave law to allow employees more paid time off if needed in order to vote on Election Day (increasing the paid time off from two to three hours). However, in the State’s 2020-21 budget, signed by Governor Andrew M. Cuomo on April 3, 2020, new amendments to New York’s Election Leave Law (Election Law § 3-110) (the “Law”) undo the changes implemented by last year’s legislation and essentially reinstates the prior time-off rules, which provide that if an employee is a registered voter without ...