KMK Law Management Rights Blog

In honor of the famous holiday song, The Twelve Days of Christmas, this episode will cover twelve thoughts on the vaccine mandates, including:

1. Current status of the mandates;
2. The Supreme Court’s consideration of the OSHA rule;
3. Timing issues created by the OSHA rule;
4. Steps for employers before the deadlines;
5. The costs associated with compliance;
6. Handling accommodation requests;
7. Issues with turnover;
8. Issues with noncompliant employees;
9. State and local laws;
10. Impact of mandates on smaller businesses;
11. Union issues;
12. Communication with employees.

Listen to the new episode of The ...

The holidays are here again and they represent a minefield for employers. It seems that every year the period of time from mid-November through the end of the year is guaranteed to generate employment litigation. With that in mind, let’s look to Charles Dickens’ beloved character Ebenezer Scrooge to give us some holiday employment law advice on 5 topics.

Hardly a day goes by without some update on the status of the various federal vaccine mandates. As of today, the OSHA ETS, the CMS Rule and the Federal Contractor Rule are all stayed nationwide.

While the OSHA Emergency Temporary Standard mandating vaccines for employers with over 100 employees has dominated the news, there are two other federal mandates that impact many employers: the federal contractor rule issued via executive orders and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Rule applicable to medicare and medicaid recipients. In this episode, the current status of these rules will be discussed along with some thoughts on what employers should be doing right now to comply or prepare to comply with the rules.

OSHA issued its Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS) effective November 5, 2021. The ETS requires employers with 100 employees or more to require employees be vaccinated or submit to weekly testing and wear masks.

In this new podcast episode, recent cases and news from the world of Labor & Employment Law will be discussed, including:

OSHA COVID-19 Vaccine Rule: This week, OSHA forwarded their draft Emergency Temporary Standard to the White House Regulatory Office, meaning that the promised rule mandating vaccines for employers with more than 100 employees may be coming soon. The immediate response to the rule when it is issued may depend on whether your business is in a state that follows federal OSHA guidelines or in a state with its own OSHA approved plan. Here is the state by state breakdown:

In this new podcast episode, recent cases and news from the world of Labor & Employment Law will be discussed, including:

New OSHA Vaccine Mandate Rule: On September 9, the President announced that he is directing OSHA to issue an emergency rule requiring employers with more than 100 employees to require employees to be vaccinated or tested for COVID weekly.  At this point, no rule has been issued and there are more questions than answers but several observations are worth considering.

Arbitration in California:  In U.S. Chamber of Commerce v. Bonta, the Ninth Circuit overturned a lower ...

The White House announced a six pronged “Path out of the Pandemic” plan today that includes a direction to OSHA to enact an emergency rule requiring all businesses with 100 or more employees to ensure that their employees are fully vaccinated or test negative for COVID-19 at least once per week.  It is anticipated that the rule will apply to more than 80 million private sector workers.   As an emergency temporary standard, the rule will undergo an expedited review process before taking effect and will not be subject to public comments.  It is expected to be published in the next several ...

Avoiding illegal conduct is always a good strategy for avoiding employment litigation.  However, there are many legal things that employers and managers do that can also lead to litigation.

In this new podcast episode, recent cases and news from the world of Labor & Employment Law will be discussed, including:

Transgender Employee Issues: Two new cases from Illinois involve claims of discrimination by transgender employees.  In Hobby Lobby v. Sommerville, an employee was denied access to the women’s restroom and in Todd v. JB for Governor, a campaign worked claims that she was included in a reduction in force because of transphobic bias.

Religious Discrimination: In Rivas v. Caesar Enterprise Services, a casino employee was terminated for refusing to work on her ...