Author Archive
WHAT’S NEW IN 2021 PAID PANDEMIC LEAVE IN THE NEW YEAR
Some Benefits Optional, Some Mandatory Nationwide Voluntary COVID-Related Paid Sick Leave: Until its December 31, 2020 expiration, the Federal Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) required COVID-19-related emergency paid sick leave and emergency paid family leave for nearly all employers with fewer than 500 on payroll. The FFCRA’s tax rules also created a 100% wash […]
FREEING THE ASYMPTOMATICS
California’s Shifting Sands Shortening of Quarantine Compliance Periods Continually changing COVID-19 quarantine and isolation standards – commonly at variance between federal, state, and local governments — have joined death and taxes as the only certain things in life. The latest Cal/OSHA emergency temporary standards (ETS) (November 30, 2020) specified a 14-day symptom-free employee quarantine after […]
WORKER COVID VACCINATIONS
E.E.O.C.’s Expanded Guidelines for Pandemic Management The federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has again expanded its pandemic guidelines to address the effect of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and other workplace anti-discrimination laws on the national COVID vaccination campaign that now lies ahead. A major “tension” point is between an employee’s right to […]
DANCING WITH CORONA
New Wave of California and Local Stay-at-Home Orders Our collective unwanted pandemic “house guest” continues to spur government’s unprecedented measures toward the virus’s permanent eviction. Beginning November 21 and to December 21, the California Department of Public Health imposed a statewide 10:00 p.m. to 5:00 a.m. curfew with certain exceptions for essential services, medical emergencies, […]
CAUTIONARY TALE EPISODE 39 FISH STORY GETS REAL
Cal/OSHA Fines Frozen Food Firm for COVID-19 Violations On September 9, 2020, Cal/OSHA announced citations and $400,000 in proposed penalties to Overhill Farms Inc. and its temporary employment agency Jobsource North America Inc. for repeatedly failing to protect hundreds of workers from COVID-19 exposure in Vernon frozen food plants. The agency alleges that on April 28, it found […]
HOLIDAY PARTY SURVIVAL 101
Keep in Your Lane Idiot If an office seeks to pull off an in-person 2020 year-ending holiday gathering party (survival celebration?), pandemic social distancing is but the newest element in the planning and execution. Management must ensure such gatherings serve to acknowledge production and promote team morale, not to spiral out-of-bounds into an otherwise preventable […]
MINIMIZING LAYOFFS IN COVID TIMES
Work Sharing Plans for Cut-back Operations The newly streamlined Employment Development Department (EDD) Unemployment Insurance “work sharing” procedure enables employers to reduce costs in these tough pandemic times, without letting employees go. Work share plans are not new in California, if used infrequently. Instead of the tough choice of who is to stay and who […]
“AT-WILL” EMPLOYMENT
Not-So-Worry-Free Termination “At-will” employment status is commonly understood as an employer’s prerogative to abruptly terminate a worker for any reason at all. Not so fast. Originally adopted during the 1800s Industrial Revolution to provide greater workforce mobility, “at-will” did mean that either employer or employee could terminate or quit the relationship at any time, with […]
CALIFORNIA CORONAVIRUS SICK LEAVE
Cities and Counties Expanding Paid Leave Benefits With the pandemic persisting in California, local governments continue to issue emergency ordinances for workers to supplement Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) benefits. Since our last posting — California Coronavirus Response, Updated – Cities and Counties Requiring Paid Sick Leave Above and Beyond Federal Limits (July 23, 2020) — […]
WHAT’S NEW IN 2021 WORKPLACE TIME OUTS
California’s Expanded Family and Medical Leave Significantly Impacts Small Business Under existing law, employers with 50 or more on payroll are required to provide unpaid family and medical leave under the California Family Rights Act (CFRA) and those with 20 or more on payroll had to provide unpaid baby-bonding time off under the New Parent […]