Workforce Bulletin

The COVID-19 global pandemic has created a multitude of business and workforce challenges for employers.  In addition to addressing organizational issues, employers that sponsor employee benefit plans and plan fiduciaries must continue to manage and administer the benefit plans as well as address plan participant inquiries during these unprecedented and uncertain times.

One area where plan fiduciaries are seeking guidance concerns oversight of defined contribution plan investment options and any additional actions that they can take now with respect to monitoring such ...

A post on the Management Memo blog will be of interest to many of our readers: "Coronavirus Considerations for Employers with a Unionized Workforce," by attorneys Adam S. Forman, Michael S. Ferrell, Steven M. Swirsky, and Elizabeth "Libby" Martin of Epstein Becker Green.

Following is an excerpt:

As we have discussed in prior Advisories, the 2019 Novel Coronavirus (“Coronavirus” or “COVID-19”) public health emergency is raising important issues for employers addressing rapidly developing disruptions to the workplace and the lives of employees with mass school ...

As many employers and employees in the State of New York know, when an individual files claims for unemployment insurance benefits, New York Labor Law, Section 590, Subdivision 7, has a mandatory seven day waiting period before unemployment benefits may be paid.

On March 7, 2020, Governor Andrew Cuomo issued Executive Order No. 202.1, declaring a State disaster emergency for the entire State of New York (the “Order”). The Order, which is entitled “Suspension and Modification of Laws Relating to the Disaster Emergency,” suspends and modifies many existing laws.

This ...

On March 10, 2020, Colorado Governor Jared Polis issued an executive order directing he Colorado Department of Labor and Employment (“DLE”) to create emergency rules to “ensure workers in food handling, hospitality, child care, health care, and education can get paid sick leave to miss work if they exhibit flu-like symptoms and have to miss work awaiting testing results for COVID-19.”

The DLE issued the Colorado Health Emergency Leave with Pay (“HELP”) Rules, which mandates four days of paid sick leave for employees in certain industries who have flu-like symptoms to ...

At the time of publication, at least twenty four states, plus Washington D.C. have declared states of emergency related to the novel coronavirus (“COVID-19”), with that number growing by the hour.  In addition to making more resources available to residents, in many cases, the declarations also trigger additional protections to consumers in the form of anti-price gouging laws.  These laws, which automatically go into effect, are intended to prevent merchants from significantly increasing the cost of consumer goods and services during a crisis.

For instance, in New Jersey a ten ...

On March 10, 2020 the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled that under the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination (“LAD”), employees who legally use cannabis as permitted by the state’s Compassionate Use of Cannabis of Medical Marijuana Act[i] (“Compassionate Use Act”) may not be fired because they use medical cannabis and that such employees are entitled to reasonable accommodation. In a brief opinion, the Court substantially adopted the Appellate Division’s reasoning in Wild v. Carriage House Funeral Holdings, Inc., about which we previously wrote.

Wild was employed by ...

As featured in #WorkforceWednesday:  In the event the coronavirus spreads drastically, many employers will want to implement mandatory work-from-home policies. Employers should consider various aspects of the Fair Labor Standards Act when crafting these policies. Attorney Jeffrey H. Ruzal explains best practices in the following video interview. See also his recent post on the Wage and Hour Defense Blog. 

Video: YouTube, Vimeo, MP4, Instagram.

First of Many Anticipated Employment Changes in Virginia, Including Expanded Coverage and Remedies for the Virginia Human Right Act and Minimum Wage Increases

On March 4, 2020, Virginia Governor Ralph Northam signed into law House Bill 1514, which amends the Virginia Human Rights Act (“VHRA”) to prohibit discrimination, “because of or on the basis of traits historically associated with race, including hair texture, hair type, and protective hairstyles such as braids, locks and twists.”  Under the law, which takes effect on July 1, 2020, covered employers may enforce ...

The IRS Office of Chief Counsel recently issued a memo which, in a surprise to many, concluded that the filing of the Affordable Care Act (“ACA”) Forms 1094-C and 1095-C (“C Forms”) does not start the statute of limitations on the Employer Shared Responsibility Payments (“ESRP”) under Internal Revenue Code (“Code”) § 4980H and, in fact, that there is no statute of limitations with respect to ESRP assessments.

In short, the ESRP is a penalty that may be assessed against “applicable large employers” (“ALEs”)[1] when, in certain circumstances, a full-time ...

Following are the top stories featured in this week's #WorkforceWednesday, from Employment Law This Week:

Employee Travel and the Coronavirus

The threat of COVID-19 is growing, and U.S. companies are on high alert. International travel by employees is an area of particular concern to employers. For more, check out our resource center at https://www.ebglaw.com/coronavirus.

NLRB Joint-Employment Rule to Take Effect

The National Labor Relations Board ...