As New York employers struggle to reopen their workplaces, implement new workplace COVID-19 policies, manage remote workers, and deal with employees who are quarantined, afraid of contracting COVID-19, afraid of the subway,...more
Here’s the scenario – Your Ambulatory Clinic just reopened in May, and since then one of the RN’s, let’s call her Rita, has been late multiple times, and is often on her phone when she should be working. When she was called...more
As the number of COVID-19 infections in certain states continues to rise, so does the number of states added to the tristate area travel advisory. Eight additional states were added to the existing list, including the...more
In a press conference earlier today, the Governors of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut announced that travelers to the tristate area from states with spikes in COVID-19 infection rates would be required to quarantine for...more
In a long awaited landmark ruling by Justice M. Gorsuch, the Supreme Court ruled that Title VII protects gay and transgender workers. The Opinion provides...more
6/17/2020
/ Altitude Express Inc v Zarda ,
Bostock v Clayton County Georgia ,
Civil Rights Act ,
EEOC v RG & GR Harris Funeral Homes ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Gender Identity ,
Hiring & Firing ,
LGBTQ ,
SCOTUS ,
Sex Discrimination ,
Sexual Orientation ,
Sexual Orientation Discrimination ,
Title VII ,
Transgender
Yesterday the EEOC updated its Technical Assistance Questions and Answers (Q&A), “What You Should Know About COVID-19 and the ADA, the Rehabilitation Act, and Other EEO Laws.”...more
The Centers for Disease Control (“CDC”) has issued new guidance which will dictate how employers can resume business and safely start the “return to work” process. The overall focus of the guidance, which purports to “change...more
Employers, as you plan for a safe return to work, there are several critical protocols and practices to consider. Below you will find a Return to Work (RTW) Checklist, created by the Kelley Drye Labor and Employment team to...more
As businesses all over the country prepare to open up and welcome employees back to work – even while the pandemic rages on – there remains a high degree of uncertainty concerning how to keep employees safe, especially those...more
It is a virtual certainty that lawsuits from employees will increase, and likely with emphasis on whistleblower and retaliation claims as states reopen and more employees return to work. Employers need to think ahead and be...more
With the reopening of state economies and return-to-work on the horizon, on April 23, 2020, the EEOC issued new guidance on workplace testing for COVID-19.
The EEOC’s guidance confirms that “employers may choose to...more
Last week, the US Supreme Court made it easier for a federal worker to establish a claim for age bias.
This decision does not impact private employers, because it relied on the specific language of the federal sector...more
4/15/2020
/ ADEA ,
Age Discrimination ,
Babb v Wilkie ,
Burden of Proof ,
But For Causation ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Federal Employees ,
Hiring & Firing ,
McDonnell Douglas Formula ,
Remedies ,
Reversal ,
SCOTUS ,
Standard of Care ,
Summary Judgment
Amidst the COVID-19 melee, the New York legislature passed its Budget for Fiscal Year 2021, which included a mandatory paid sick leave bill, signed by Governor Cuomo on April 3, 2020....more
The U.S. Department of Labor has just issued over one hundred pages of detailed temporary regulations, effective from April 1, 2020 to December 31, 2020, implementing the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (“FFCRA”). The...more
The U.S. Department of Labor (“DOL”) has issued the first round of guidance regarding the recently enacted Families First Coronavirus Response Act (“FFCRA”)....more
On March 26, 2020, the Department of Labor (“DOL”) published the Poster covered employers must post to satisfy the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) notice requirement....more
Not to be upstaged by the President, and just as the Senate was voting on the Families First Coronavirus Response Act of 2020 (“FFRCA”), New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo signed into law paid sick leave legislation to...more
On the evening of Monday, March 16, the House amended the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (“FFCRA”) (HR 6201) by amending the bill with what are being called “technical corrections.”...more
On March 14, the House passed the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (“FFCRA” or "the Act") (HR 6201). This bill is not yet a law, but probably will be voted on this week or next. If the bill is signed into law by the...more
As federal, state and local governments continue to develop their responses to the COVID-19 outbreak, employers may find themselves in uncharted territory as to how to deal with emerging employee issues....more
3/11/2020
/ Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Best Practices ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) ,
Health and Safety ,
Infectious Diseases ,
Policies and Procedures ,
Public Health ,
Risk Management ,
Traveling Employee ,
Workplace Safety
As we close the books on 2019, and enter the new decade, New York employers should keep a list of all new legislation handy. Below is our brief summary of legislation effective 2020....more
On December 17, 2019, the National Labor Relations Board issued two decisions which dramatically overturn a pair of hotly debated Obama-era rules.
The first sets down a rule allowing employers to limit an employee’s use of...more
What’s happening at McDonald’s should serve as an important lesson for many employers. In the past two weeks, it was reported that its CEO resigned or was terminated (depending on what news outlet you read) because he...more
A Los Angeles jury awarded a black former UCLA phlebotomist nearly $1.6 million in damages for being subjected to racial harassment by co-workers. Birden v. The Regents of the University of California, No. BC6681389 (Los...more
With the crowd’s chant of “equal pay” echoing at the Women’s World Cup soccer match and again as the champions float down the Canyon of Heroes, the issue of pay equality continues to be in the spotlight, and the New York...more