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Can Your Boss Force You to Get a COVID Vaccine Shot?

With the Biden administration all-in on the inoculation of America, meaningful plans for widespread COVID-19 vaccine distribution and availability are taking shape. The Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna offerings will surely be joined soon by Johnson & Johnson’s single dose vaccine, and FDA approval of the promising Oxford-AstraZeneca product, which may even halt the spread of the novel coronavirus, seems inevitable. (Read More)

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New York Amends Its Sick Leave Policy

Last April, New York enacted permanent paid sick leave to most workers starting next year.

Previously, paid sick leave was mandatory in just New York City and Westchester County. Under the new state law, however, all New Yorkers will be eligible for sick time, and companies with 100 or more employees must allow workers to accrue up to 56 hours, up from the 40 hours of paid sick time per year that employers in NYC and Westchester county were required to provide. (Read More)

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Courts Find OFCCP's Sole Reliance on Statistical Analysis to Prove Pay Disparity Is Flawed

In two recent cases, courts have rejected conclusions of the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) that employers had discriminatorily underpaid its women, Black and Hispanic workers. In the first case, an administrative law judge for the U.S. Department of Labor set forth a ruling on September 22, 2020 that may lead the OFCCP to rethink its statistical analysis approach to workplace wage disparities. (Read More)

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DOL Proposes New Rules for Determining Independent Contractor Status

The Fair Labor Standards Act (the “FLSA”) guarantees a minimum wage for employees and the payment of overtime for hours worked over 40 in one week for non-exempt employees. Independent contractors are not employees and thus they are excluded from FLSA coverage. Over the years, different federal agencies and courts have generated similar but different tests for determining independent contractor status, with the result that the same set of facts may yield different and inconsistent results depending upon the agency, court, and test. The trend, however, by both legislatures and courts concerned about the implications of the gig economy, has been to favor employment status and to limit those categories of workers who can be classified as contractors. California’s AB5 law, which dramatically limits who can be classified as a contractor, is a prime example of pro-employee status legislation. (Read More)

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California Employers Now Subject to Additional COVID-19-Related Laws Related to Cal/OSHA Reporting and Worker’s Compensation

The addition of even more employee-leaning laws in the Golden State continues. As Michelman & Robinson reported earlier this month, the California legislature passed—and Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law—AB 1867, giving an increased number of employees in California access to paid sick leave as it relates to the novel coronavirus pandemic through the remainder of 2020. Late last week, Governor Newsom placed his signature on two other bills: AB 685, which requires employers to report COVID-19 cases to Cal/OSHA within a prescribed period of time, and SB 1159, a law that makes worker’s compensation benefits more accessible to employees by creating a “disputable presumption” that an illness or death resulting from COVID-19 has arisen out of and in the course and scope of employment. The latter bill is likely to cause worker’s compensation premiums to skyrocket for many employers already trying to manage increased claims following pandemic-related furloughs and layoffs. (Read More)

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COVID-19-Related Paid Sick Leave Has Been Expanded in California Yet Again to All Employers with 500+ Employees

A bill has been passed and signed into law this week by Governor Gavin Newsom giving more employees in California access to paid sick leave as it relates to COVID-19.

As previously reported by Michelman & Robinson, ordinances are already on the books requiring certain employers to provide supplemental sick leave to employees within the City of Los Angeles as well as unincorporated L.A. County by virtue of the pandemic. These ordinances are in addition to the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, which requires most companies employing fewer than 500 workers to make two weeks of paid sick leave available to those affected by the coronavirus. (Read More)

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Federal Anti-Discrimination Law Extends to LGBTQ Employees

The U.S. Supreme Court has delivered great news to the LGBTQ community nationwide. In this week’s landmark decision captioned Bostock v. Clayton County, the high court ruled that federal law—namely, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964—prohibits employment discrimination against LGBTQ workers. To that point, Justice Neil Gorsuch, writing for the 6-3 majority, stated, “An employer who fires an individual merely for being gay or transgender violates [the law].” (Read More)

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Employment in the Wake of Coronavirus: Reintegrating Your Workforce in the New Normal 

The impact of COVID-19 has been devastating for employers, employees, independent contractors, and the self-employed. Yet, as cases begin to plateau and the curve appears to be flattening in places like New York, the pandemic’s epicenter here in the U.S., the conversation has begun to shift from how to survive the crisis to how best to manage our way back to work—when the time comes—in an effective and safe manner. The answer to the latter question will fall not only on policy makers governing the parameters of the public aspects of our daily lives, but also squarely on employers—like you—as they are given, in whole or in part, the all-clear to resume operations. (Read More)

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Michelman & Robinson’s Guide to Coronavirus-Related Paid Sick Leave and Unemployment Insurance Laws in the Tri-State Area

As one of the many unfortunate results of the coronavirus pandemic, employees nationwide will be laid off or otherwise furloughed. Consequently, the governors of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut have signed into law measures to help ease the disruption to employees and their employers. Michelman & Robinson provides an overview. (Read More)

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An Important Message From Michelman & Robinson About California Governor's Statewide Stay-At-Home Order

The entire state of California has essentially been placed on lockdown as Governor Gavin Newsom has called for a statewide stay-at-home order to combat the spread of the coronavirus, which causes COVID-19. Governor Newsom’s move, which impacts nearly 40M people, comes on the heels of various “shelter in place” and similar orders that have already been issued throughout the state, including the “Safer at Home” emergency order declared in Los Angeles earlier today by Mayor Eric Garcetti. (Read More)