As employees begin returning to work over the coming weeks, employers will face unique challenges created by the risk of workplace exposure to the coronavirus. These risks take on an added urgency in a number of states where workers’ compensation coverage may not create an absolute bar to lawsuits related to workplace exposure to COVID-19. In fact, such lawsuits have already commenced with the April 6, 2020 filing of Toney Evans v. Walmart, Inc., et al., No. 2020-L-003938 in Cook County, Illinois. This first lawsuit has many employers – quite rightly – worried about whether the tort immunity typically provided by workers’ compensation laws will protect them given the unique nature of the COVID-19 pandemic. The best response to mitigate this risk will be to conduct a comprehensive review of workplace health and safety practices to help minimize the risk of workplace transmission of COVID-19 while carefully evaluating additional ways to limit exposure as government restrictions subside.
Continue Reading Does workers’ compensation protect employers from liability arising from workplace transmission of COVID-19?
Updated COVID-19 FAQs for employers with U.S. employees
The worldwide COVID-19 pandemic has had, and will continue to have, a substantial impact on the U.S. workplace. Please click here for a series of FAQs we have compiled based on some of the more common questions that clients with U.S.-based employees have posed to us within the past few weeks.
These FAQs are general
Updated COVID-19 FAQs for employers with U.S. employees
Please see an updated version of our FAQs as of April 18, 2020.
The worldwide COVID-19 pandemic has had, and will continue to have, a substantial impact on the U.S. workplace. Please click here for a series of FAQs we have compiled based on some of the more common questions that clients with U.S.-based employees
Texas update: Governor Abbott issues statewide executive orders while counties amend stay-at-home orders
Recently, additional action has been taken at both the state and county levels in Texas to prevent the spread of COVID-19. At the state level, Governor Greg Abbott has issued three executive orders mandating both roadway and air travelers originating at certain locations to self-quarantine for a period of 14 days upon their arrival in Texas. Governor Abbott has also issued an executive order instructing all individuals in Texas, except where necessary to provide or obtain essential services, to minimize social gatherings and minimize in-person contact with people who are not in the same household. At the county level, the shelter in place orders issued last week by Dallas, Harris, and Travis counties have all been amended or clarified.
Continue Reading Texas update: Governor Abbott issues statewide executive orders while counties amend stay-at-home orders
Texas metro areas issue shelter-in-place orders to slow the spread of COVID-19
Texas is taking a localized approach in trying to slow the spread of COVID-19. Since Monday, March 23, 2020, county and city governments from some of Texas’s largest metropolitan areas have issued “stay home-work safe” orders. This includes Dallas County, Harris County (where Houston is located), and Travis County (where Austin is located).
Each of the three orders affecting Dallas, Houston, and Austin allow “Essential Businesses” to remain open. While each order has a slightly different definition of “Essential Businesses,” all three orders include in their definitions of essential businesses the 16 critical infrastructure sectors identified by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). “Non-essential businesses” are allowed to continue operations on a limited basis in varying degrees under each of the three orders. More detail on each of the orders is below.
For specific information on your city or business, employers should review the relevant order and its impact with the assistance of counsel to determine whether their operations are “Essential Businesses.” Determining whether your operations are essential businesses is highly fact specific, and companies should exercise caution when making that determination. Those businesses deemed “non-essential” should also consult their attorneys to assess next steps allowed under the applicable order.
Continue Reading Texas metro areas issue shelter-in-place orders to slow the spread of COVID-19
Significant changes to Colorado’s wage rules on the horizon
The Colorado Department of Labor and Employment’s Division of Labor Standards and Statistics (the Division) recently adopted Colorado Overtime and Minimum Pay Standards Order # 36 (COMPS), which will take effect on March 16, 2020.[1] COMPS will replace the Colorado Minimum Wage Order, which had largely remained substantively unchanged for two decades. With the
DOL final rule updates exclusions from employees’ regular rate
On December 16, 2019, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) published its first significant revision since 1968 to its interpretation of the calculation of the “regular rate” under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).[1] The regulations address whether certain fringe benefits must be included in calculating an employee’s regular rate for overtime purposes. With the publication of this final rule, the DOL seeks to not only provide clarity as to what is excluded from the regular rate, but also update regulations to better reflect the 21st-century workplace.
The DOL published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) underlying the new regular rate rule on March 29, 2019. Comments to the proposed rule were submitted by small business owners, individual workers, unions, and professional associations. In response to those comments, the DOL made some modifications to the proposed rule before adopting it.
Continue Reading DOL final rule updates exclusions from employees’ regular rate