Labor & Employment Law Update

Check out some of the recent updates in COVID-19 regulations, discrimination policies, minimum wage and more!

ARIZONA

The State of Arizona will require health-care employers to develop a written workplace violence prevention plan, specifically tailored toward conditions and hazards of the employees’ sites and patient-specific risk factors.  Arizona S.B. 1311 requires that the plan include reporting, incident response and post-incident investigation measures.

CALIFORNIA

• The California Department of Public Health recently issued an Isolation and Quarantine Q&A guidance to explain the changes made to the definition of “close contact” on June 8, 2022.  The guidance explains that the updated definition differs from that of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, and how entities may prioritize their response to close contact reports.
• The California Department of Public Health updated its COVID-19 checklist for employers as related to preventing and responding to COVID-19 in the workplace.  The update references A.B. 685 and the Cal/OHSA Covid-19 Emergency Temporary Standards, and incorporates changes to department guidance, face masks regulation, isolation and quarantine and vaccination requirements.
• Recently Proposition G was passed by voters in San Francisco.   Effective October 1, 2022, employers with 100+ employees worldwide, who employ at least one employee in San Francisco, must provide such employees with paid public health emergency leave.  Eligible employees are entitled to up to 80 hours of paid leave annually during public health emergencies.

COLORADO

• Colorado H.B. 22-1383 prohibits employers from asking applicants, of any age, to disclose information related to an arrest, detention, processing, diversion, supervision, adjudication or court disposition that occurred while the applicant was subject to the process and jurisdiction of the juvenile court. In addition, no applicant, of any age, is obligated to disclose this information in response to an employer inquiry.
• Colorado S.B. 22-097 expands the whistleblower protections for employees who raise reasonable concern about health or safety by removing the requirement that the concern be related to a public health emergency.

ILLINOIS

As of January 1, 2023, the state fair employment law will be amended to specify that prohibited discrimination on the basis of race, includes discrimination on the basis of traits associated with race.  Illinois S.B. 3616 serves to protect traits/features like hair texture and protective hairstyles.

SEATTLE

On June 13, 2022, Mayor Bruce Harrell signed a bill to require companies with 250+ on-demand, app-based “gig” workers to pay minimum pay rate for services or portions of services performed in Seattle.  The new minimum wage rate is $0.38/minute worked and $.064/mile driven.  Tips paid to app-based workers may will not count toward their minimum pay rates.