KMK Law Management Rights Blog

Late last week the DOL issued two additional sets of guidance on the FFCRA to answer many of the pressing questions employers have been asking as they prepare for its April 1, 2020 effective date.  The guidance is in FAQ format and covers a wide variety of topics over a current total of 59 questions and answers. Some of the highlights include:

The spread of COVID-19 as well as the responses of federal, state and local governments continues to create unprecedented challenges for employers. The following is a non-comprehensive list of some of the most frequent questions we are fielding from employers.

For all employers closely following the Coronavirus situation, here is a list of the latest guidance from government resources:

Over the past week, the number of confirmed cases of Coronavirus (COVID-19) in the United States has more than doubled.  Most employers are considering measures to help them navigate the impact of Coronavirus in the workplace.  The problem employers face is that employment laws were simply not written with scenarios like the Coronavirus crisis in mind. 

The annual NCAA Basketball Tournament, a/k/a March Madness, starts today. More on that below but there is another kind of “March” for employers to be concerned about.

As anticipated, the Department of Labor’s (DOL) final overtime rules were issued on May 18, 2016. Effective December 1, 2016, these new regulations will impact all companies with salaried employees earning less than $47,476 annually. KMK will be offering training sessions to assist our clients in developing effective strategies to implement the new overtime rules. 

This week, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (“OSHA”) released a finalized recordkeeping rule that becomes effective January 1, 2017.  Under the final rule, certain employers are required to electronically submit data regarding work-related injuries and illnesses.  Impacted employers are already required to collect and record this data under OSHA regulations.  However, now, this employer injury and illness data will be public.  Once OSHA removes personal identifying information of employees, the data will be posted on OSHA’s website.

The Second Circuit’s decision to reinstate the NFL’s four game suspension of Tom Brady has been in the news this week. To those of us who handle arbitration on a regular basis, it came as no surprise. However, employers who arbitrate cases pursuant to a collective bargaining agreement, or who have or are considering arbitration programs, should not be overly concerned.   

One of the most common requests that I receive as an employment attorney is to review severance offers.  I’ve had these kinds of requests from friends, relatives, acquaintances and (on rare occasions) clients and I seldom turn them down. I have probably handled hundreds of reductions in force for various corporate clients so I like to see how others handle them.  In the past month, I have reviewed two severances packages and both failed to follow the requirements of the Older Workers’ Benefit Protection Act (“OWBPA”).  I was not at all surprised.  If I had to guess, I would say that over 50% of the severance offers I’ve reviewed over the years are not in compliance with the OWBPA.     

I recently wrote about OSHA’s plan to develop and distribute information to ensure transgender employees have safe and adequate access to workplace restrooms.  This week, OSHA issued “Best Practices - A Guide to Restroom Access for Transgender Workers,” with the stated Core Principle that “[a]ll employees, including transgender employees, should have access to restrooms that correspond to their gender identity.”  The OSHA Guide notes the following: