On September 30, 2020, New York State’s new statewide permanent sick leave law goes into effect, requiring employers statewide to provide unpaid and paid sick leave benefits to their employees. With the law’s effective date drawing near, we provide below a summary of some of the major provisions of the law. For more detail, please refer to our previously issued client alert, which you can access here.
Archives for September 2, 2020
Jackson Lewis Joins National LGBT Chamber of Commerce to Advance LGBT Workplace and Supply Chain Inclusion in Legal Services
The National LGBT Chamber of Commerce (NGLCC), the business voice of the LGBT Community, is proud to welcome national employment law firm Jackson Lewis P.C. as a National Legal Partner.
Patricia Anderson Pryor Discusses FFCRA Leave Obligations
Patricia Anderson Pryor discusses confusion over employers’ obligations regarding paid leave under the Families First Coronavirus Response Act in “Covid-19 Leave Suits Trickle In With Spike Expected This Fall,” published by Bloomberg Law.
Learning Pods: More Vital Than Ever For Today And Tomorrow’s Workforce
Learning pods are increasing in popularity for school students keen to pace through their online learning during the stop-and-go life that the pandemic induces.
Why Are Workers Getting A Smaller Piece Of The Economic Pie?
A common refrain among economists in recent years is that the fruits of the economy’s success have gone to owners of capital rather than workers, with this growing inequality a major theme of Thomas Pikkety’s wildly popular work, Capital In The 21st Century.
First vaccine doses would go to health workers under US guide
The first doses of a COVID-19 vaccine should go to front-line health-care workers and first responders, followed by people at higher medical risk from the virus, said a group of scientists and academics advising the U.S. government.
Here are 5 key things workers should know about the payroll tax deferral
Sept. 1 was the first day of President Donald Trump’s payroll tax deferral, a temporary suspension of the 6.2% Social Security tax that employees cover. It’s in effect until the end of the year.
Covid-19 cases could explode after Labor Day: It’s up to us to stop it
Memorial Day came. We celebrated. We burst out of our suffocating homes with a damn-the-torpedoes surge, eager to see the places, family and friends we’d been yearning for during those smothering weeks of isolation.
Fox News airs secret audio of Chris Cuomo discussing sexual harassment allegations
CNN host Chris Cuomo may have been accused of sexual harassment, Tucker Carlson claimed after airing secret audio of his cable news rival Tuesday night on Fox News.
DOL Issues New Opinion Letters on Fluctuating Workweek Hours Requirement, Other Topics
Continuing the practice it reinstituted during the current administration, on August 31, 2020 the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) Wage Hour Division (WHD) issued four new Opinion Letters, addressing a variety of topics. That brings the total to 57 Opinion Letters issued since 2018, including the re-publication of 17 Opinion
Directly-Observed Urine Collections Do Not Constitute Invasion of Privacy Where Employees Consented to Drug Testing
The Supreme Court of Ohio held that an at-will employee has no cause of action for common law invasion of privacy after the employer required the employee to submit to a directly-observed urine collection drug test. Lunsford v. Sterilite of Ohio, LLC, slip op. No. 2020-Ohio-4193 (August 26, 2020).
Sterilite
Former HR Chief a Focus of McDonald’s Investigation
Executives say David Fairhurst made women uncomfortable during former CEO Steve Easterbrook’s tenure
DOL Weighs in on Fluctuating Workweek Method: Employee Hours Do Not Need to Fluctuate Below 40 to Qualify
On August 31, 2020, the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) Wage and Hour Division (WHD) released opinion letter FLSA2020-14.
4 Tips for Better Workplace Investigations
There have been some big headline news stories recently about the humble job of an employee relations person. Did you miss them? You probably didn’t — -just didn’t think about how HR and employee relations plays a significant role and could have made a real difference, especially in one area:
Independent Contractor Issues in California: Summer 2020 Update
As the world focused its attention on the COVID-19 pandemic, other legal issues took a back seat. In California in the summer of 2020, however, the topic of whether a worker should be classified as an independent contractor or an employee has come to the fore. Several notable developments