Labor & Employment Law Update

As we now know, the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) requires covered employers to provide employees with paid sick leave — under the Emergency Paid Sick Leave Act (EPSLA) — for specified reasons related to COVID-19 starting April 1. These reasons include: because the employee is subject to a federal, state or local quarantine or isolation order related to COVID-19.

Many states and local governments have now mandated shelter-in-place (SIP) or stay-at-home orders.

The question facing many employers is whether these SIP orders trigger the paid leave ...

This blog has previously reported on Governor Parson’s resistance to issue a state-wide “Stay At Home” Order in Missouri in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.  He had previously issued a “Social Distancing” Order, effective through April 6, 2020, with individual counties and municipalities left to issue their own Stay At Home Orders to fill the void.

Now that has changed. 

On Friday evening, the Governor announced that the State’s Department of Health & Human Services had issued a state-wide Order mandating that all Missourians “shall avoid leaving their homes or ...

The US Department of Labor (DOL) has posted its temporary regulations regarding the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA).  The DOL is scheduled to post its published version on April 6, 2020.  The new regulations include parts 826.10 – 826.160 of the federal code and set forth the compliance requirements for employers with less than 500 employees for both the Emergency Paid Sick Leave Act (EPSLA) and the Expanded Family and Medical Leave (EFMLEA).

Additionally, the DOL continues to update its FFCRA FAQ’s and FAQ’s regarding posting requirements. At the time ...

The Department of Labor has issued Temporary Regulations on the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) to address an issue already causing employers fits – namely, can employees use paid sick leave under the Emergency Paid Sick Leave Act (EPSLA) and expanded family and medical leave under the Emergency Family and Medical Leave Expansion Act (EFMLEA) intermittently?  

According to the DOL: it depends. 

The employer and employee must agree to intermittent leave.

First and foremost, the regulations are clear that “one basic condition” applies to all employees who ...

On March 31, 2020, the Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service launched the Employee Retention Credit, designed to encourage businesses to keep employees on their payroll. The refundable tax credit is 50 percent of up to $10,000 in wages paid by an eligible employer whose business has been financially impacted by COVID-19.

How to determine if your business qualifies for the Employee Retention Credit:

The credit is available to all employers regardless of size, including tax-exempt organizations. There are only two exceptions: state and local governments and their ...

The federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act and the patchwork state-law equivalents are often overlooked when employers are considering their options regarding potential layoffs or furloughs – either permanent or temporary. Employers should be cautioned that not abiding by the requirements of the WARN Act could lead to problems down the road.

The WARN Act requires employers with 100 or more employees to give an advance 60-day written notice to its displaced workers, certain third parties, and government bodies notice for a plant closing or mass ...

***Please see updated information on FFCRA regulations in our April 3, 2020 post.

A component of the recently passed Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) requires covered employers to provide employees with paid sick leave or expanded family and medical leave for specified reasons related to COVID-19 starting April 1. Additionally, many states and local governments have now mandated that non-essential businesses close and that its citizens stay at home, subject to certain exceptions, often referred to as Shelter in Place (SIP) or Stay at Home orders.

The question ...

Businesses with a unionized workforce need to consider whether their responses to the COVID-19 pandemic constitute unilateral changes under existing work terms and conditions. An employer’s duty to bargain in good faith with its employees’ union encompasses many obligations, including the duty to not make certain changes to work terms and conditions without bargaining with the union. While a union is not likely to bring an unfair labor practice charge against an employer for “benevolent” unilateral changes, a union generally has a solid basis to bring an unfair ...

At the time of passage of the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA), the Department of Labor (DOL) was tasked with issuing guidance on how a “small employer” might be exempt from providing paid sick leave and expanded FMLA benefits if doing so affected the business’s viability. The DOL has now issued guidance that addresses how this viability exemption can be met. Specifically, the DOL states that an employer, which includes religious or nonprofit organizations, with fewer than 50 employees (small business), is exempt from providing paid emergency sick ...

On March 28, 2020, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) issued an update to its “Families First Coronavirus Response Act: Questions and Answers” to address, among other things, the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) provisions that allow employers of “health care providers” and “emergency responders” to exclude such employees from the FFCRA’s emergency sick leave and expanded FMLA provisions. The specific questions that address the provisions for health care providers and emergency responders shown in this article can be found on the DOL ...