Archive for April, 2020
ARE WE DONE YET?
Workplace Return Planning There is no shortage of federal guidelines for preventing a new pandemic wave as more businesses welcome workers back to resume full production. Reflecting many of our recent articles, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) Guidance Summary: Preparing Workplaces for COVID-19 advises: Developing a preparedness and response plan (also see our article: Thinking the […]
OY VEY, NOW WHAT?
Employers Must Use New I-9 Form Starting May 1, 2020 All U.S. employers must verify identity and work authorization for each employee hired within the U.S., including citizens and non-citizens, using “Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification” (I-9 Form). Starting May 1, 2020, businesses nationwide must begin using the revised I-9 Form (rev. 10/21/2019). Section 2 […]
THINKING THE UNTHINKABLE
THINKING THE UNTHINKABLE Expanding Federal Post-Pandemic Guidelines for Safeguarding Returning Personnel Perhaps to dream but whether full business revival is prompt or eventual, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) today issued expanded pandemic-related guidelines for screening returning employees. As covered in Infection Protection, What Employers Can Ask in a Pandemic (March 25), the EEOC […]
OUR NEW NORMAL WEEK FIVE
“Safer at Home” Updated, Statewide Coronavirus Response We are in our fifth week following Governor Newson’s March 18 order requiring all California residents until further notice to stay at home or place of residence except for those in businesses and functions deemed essential to 16 federally-designated “critical infrastructure” sectors. The state last updated yesterday its […]
KEEP IT TO YOURSELF
Essential Workers Must Cover Up and Stay Six Feet Apart Facing COVID-19’s unfolding (sur)realities, LA City, LA County, Pasadena and Riverside County, among other local California public health authorities, have ordered that wear-a-mask and six-foot distance “recommendations” are now mandatory whenever possible for workers at essential businesses. Effective April 10, a City of Los Angeles […]
COVID-19 SAFETY NETS
Overview of CARES Act Small Business Loans On March 27, 2020, President Trump approved The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES Act), a $2 trillion relief package intended to protect small business from the economic impacts of COVID-19. Some media have overstated CARES Act business loans as “free money” or “fully forgivable.” Enterprise owners […]
PORT IN A STORM
Our Webinar on Workplace COVID-19 Realities With an estimated 95% of America’s residents, some 306 million people, now under some form of “stay home,” “safer at home,” “shelter in place” order, employers face unprecedented (sur)realities, ranging from the sudden need for workforce reduction, blanket layoffs and furloughs, hastily constructed COVID-19 driven unemployment benefit alternatives, and the […]
IT’S A WASH
COVID-19 Paid Leave and Tax Credits As reported in Federal Coronavirus Workplace Relief (March 23) and COVID-19 Gets Noticed (April 2) the March 18 Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) requires most employers with fewer than 500 on payroll to provide paid sick and family leave wages for certain COVID 19-related absences. The FFCRA includes […]
WHEN THE SHOW MUST GO ON
Key Protection Protocols for an Essential Industry Employee’s COVID-19 Diagnosis/Symptoms As of April 7, all but five states (the Dakotas, Nebraska, Iowa, and Arkansas) have some form of COVID-19 “safer at home” orders in place. For those businesses permitted or directed to stay open as part of the 16 federally-designated “critical infrastructure” sectors, management faces […]
“SAFER AT HOME”
California’s Coronavirus Response Statewide and Local April 3, 2020 Current Status Welcome to our new pandemic-driven world, evolving daily. On March 19, 2020, California Governor Gavin Newson issued Executive Order N-33-20 requiring all California residents until further notice to stay at home or place of residence except for those in businesses and functions deemed essential to […]