Articles Discussing Human Resources And Other Workplace Topics.

Over the past few months, many employers have announced plans to encourage COVID-19 vaccination among their workforce by implementing either medical premium discounts for the vaccinated or surcharges for the unvaccinated. 

So, a few of my colleagues and I have been wagering how long it would take the federal Department of Labor’s OSHA folks to prepare an initial draft of a regulation to implement President Biden’s private sector vaccination order. I won. (I said it would be before October 15, 2021.)

The State Department cannot rely on presidential proclamations to refuse to adjudicate visas, Judge James E. Boasberg in the U.S. District Court for the D.C. District has held.

Judge Boasberg said nothing about what the State Department needs to do in line with its opinion, but established that the Administration’s

Manufacturing employers continue to feel the brunt of emerging and evolving trends related to the COVID-19 pandemic: workplace safety, labor shortages, absence management, remote technology, and employee retention — just to name a few. On the workplace safety front, mask mandates, testing protocols, and vaccine issues continue to make headlines, including President

As vaccination mandates continue to be a topic of discussion and discord in the workplace, the world of college athletics is not exempt from similar mandatory vaccine controversy.

The First Amendment rights of 16 student-athletes seeking a religious exemption as a basis to avoid compliance with Western Michigan University’s (WMU)

The Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Council has issued a Deviation  Clause that will implement President Biden’s Executive Order 14042:  Ensuring Adequate COVID Safety Protocols for Federal Contractors (FAR Clause).  The FAR Council appended the FAR Clause to its Guidance to federal agencies so that agencies can begin immediate incorporation of

Employers that are considering imposing health plan premium surcharges to encourage their employees to get vaccinated have clearer guidance on how to do so without running afoul of the nondiscrimination rules under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA). Both vaccination surcharges and incentives are permitted by

On September 16, 2021, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, in Matias v. Terrapin House, Inc., ruled that an employee, who was terminated the same day that she informed her employer that she had tested positive for COVID-19, could proceed with claims alleging that her termination violated the Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments Act (ADAAA) and the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act (PHRA).

On September 24, 2021, President Biden’s Safer Federal Workforce Task Force issued guidance for federal contractors and subcontractors regarding mandatory COVID-19 workplace safety protocols (“Guidance”). 

As employers consider implementing a vaccine mandate to encourage employees to get vaccinated against COVID-19, we have recently discussed the merits of imposing a “vaccine surcharge” on monthly health insurance premiums for those employees who remain unvaccinated.  There were unanswered questions about specific legal issues, but now the Department of