Articles Discussing General Topics In Virginia Labor & Employment Law.

Virginia has published its highly anticipated first-in-the-nation emergency temporary standard for COVID-19 in the workplace.

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Executive Summary: In what Virginia Governor Ralph Northam described as a response to an “absence of federal guidelines,” Virginia became the first state in the U.S. to establish and implement emergency workplace safety standards in response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. 

On July 15, 2020, Virginia became the first state in the nation to implement an emergency temporary standard (“ETS”) to address the COVID-19 pandemic. The ETS covers every employer in the Commonwealth and includes mandatory requirements for all employers (with additional requirements for workplaces with certain exposure risk levels),

In a split vote, the Virginia Safety and Health Codes Board passed a first-in-the-nation standard to address COVID-19 in workplaces. 

Businesses of all sizes have, understandably, been consumed by how to address the numerous pressing issues that the COVID-19 pandemic has wrought.  As a result, it can be easy to lose sight of the dramatic changes to Virginia employment law, which have created a significantly more employee-friendly venue as

Beginning July 1, 2020, the Virginia Workers’ Compensation Commission will begin enforcing a new law that will affect how Virginia employers and their workers’ compensation insurance carriers respond to initial claims for benefits filed by an injured worker. 

Virginia has adopted a pay transparency law that prohibits employers from discharging or taking any other retaliatory action against an employee for discussing wages or compensation with another employee. The new law was passed on April 22, 2020, and becomes effective on July 1, 2020.

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On June 2, 2020, Virginia Governor Ralph Northam issued Executive Order 65 and Order of Public Health Emergency Six (“Executive Order 65”), which is set to take effect at 12:00 a.m. on Friday, June 5, 2020. In entering the Order, the governor cited “remarkable progress” in addressing the COVID-19

Updated June 9, 2020

Virginia Governor Ralph Northam announced on May 27, 2020 that the Northern Virginia Region, the City of Richmond, and Accomack County – which delayed implementing “Phase One” of the Commonwealth’s reopening protocol by two weeks – will move into Phase One on May 29, 2020.

On May 21, 2020, Virginia Governor Ralph Northam signed legislation (HB 972/SB 2) to decriminalize simple marijuana possession and prohibit employers from requiring applicants to disclose information related to past criminal charges for such possession.  The law will take effect July 1, 2020.

At a press conference on May 4, 2020, Virginia Governor Ralph Northam announced the Commonwealth’s three-phase plan for easing, and eventually lifting, the restrictions imposed on nonessential businesses because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Virginia thus joins the growing number of jurisdictions that have announced and/or implemented measures to reopen nonessential businesses.

Prior to the passage of SB 548, Virginia was one of 25 states without an active work-sharing program. On April 22, 2020, Governor Ralph Northam enacted a new work-sharing program, which will permit employers to reduce employees’ normal hours of work between 10% and 60% and permit employees to receive unemployment benefits for those periods of reduced hours and income.

On April 22, 2020, the Virginia General Assembly adopted Governor Ralph Northam’s proposed amendment to a bill that will re-establish a work-sharing program in Virginia.1 The amended work-share bill received broad bi-partisan support in both chambers of the legislature. As a result, on January 1, 2021, Virginia will join a group of more than 20 states that offer work-sharing programs, which provide prorated unemployment benefits to workers whose employers reduce their hours in an effort to avoid layoffs.