Rojgar Job News

Wednesday evening is the first night of Passover — one of my favorite Jewish holidays. (And, not surprisingly, not the first time I’ve written about it.) Why? Traditionally, it is one of the few times the entire extended family gets together and celebrates with great homemade food. Think matzo ball soup, gefilte fish, hard-boiled eggs, latkes (yes, my family eats them for Passover too) and, of course, my mother’s meatballs (made with my late-grandmother’s recipe, of course). But this year will be different. No family seder. At least not in person. Instead, we are using the 2020 technology instead – a video conference. Call it the Year of the Zoom Seder. Will it work? Well it won’t be the same, but it’ll be different. And that’s just fine by me.  At least we’re together. And what about the food? Well, as it turns out, my mother lives nearby and we did a distanced tradeoff.  I received a fresh batch of matzo ball soup and mea...

A few weeks ago, I did an inital post about how the new OSHA guidance on masks only served to complicate efforts for employers to comply with any such rules. This week, my colleague Alfredo Fernandez (with only a little help from me — byline notwithstanding) posted a more thorough post on the ins and outs of masks, face coverings and personal protective equipment. You can read the entire post here.  Here’s a sneak peek: The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) recently issued guidance to answer frequently asked questions (FAQs) about the proper use of cloth face masks “at work” during the COVID-19 pandemic. The OSHA guidance must be read in conjunction with any applicable state rules and orders, many of which currently mandate that employees wear a face covering with limited exceptions. Because face masks are an essential defense against the spread of COVID-19, understanding your employees’ respiratory health risks and establishing...

What do you think of masks? Strangely, it seems a loaded question of late.  How masks became a political hot potato is something that historians will debate. Yesterday, Connecticut tried out a new slogan encouraging common-sense use of masks. The new slogan? “If you have to ask, wear a mask”. But that’s not the full story of course. In all of the state’s reopening rules, masks (and face coverings) are a key component — in stores, restaurants, offices, even amusement parks. OSHA has chimed in as well with a new FAQ purporting to recap existing regulations on the subject. If you read that, though, you might think that employers in Connecticut are exempt from provide masks to their workers now. Cloth face coverings are not considered personal protective equipment (PPE) and are not intended to be used when workers need PPE for protection against exposure to occupational hazards. As such, OSHA’s PPE standards do not require employers to provide them. ...

Although the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), commonly referred to as the “coronavirus,” remains a developing situation, it has begun affecting the US in major ways.  With cases now reported throughout the US, every organization should have a plan of action in place concerning the coronavirus.  Although every business faces unique considerations, a cross-disciplinary team of Squire Patton Boggs attorneys have collaborated to prepare guidance – available here – for organizations to consider when addressing coronavirus-related employment, customer service, and other issues.

From our colleagues at the FrESH Law Blog comes a post analyzing the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) recent Interim Enforcement Response Plan for Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). Since the COVID-19 pandemic first hit the United States in early 2020, OSHA has been issuing COVID-19 guidance to employers on appropriate ways to address the pandemic, as previously discussed here, here, and here.  The guidance has mirrored recommendations coming from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the White House, and builds upon past guidance OSHA has offered to employers when dealing with other (not so) similar pandemics.  OSHA’s most recent (and perhaps most telling) guidance was issued on April 13, 2020, in the form of a memorandum to OSHA regional administrators and state plan designees, entitled Interim Enforcement Response Plan for Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) (the IERP).  Although a...

While COVID-19 has turned everyone’s focus toward safety and health generally, it has forced US employers specifically to focus on the safety and health of their employees during an unprecedented time. Employers in the US have common law and statutory duties to ensure safe workplaces, but the COVID-19 pandemic has greatly disrupted many of the traditional means that employers have relied on for doing so, as well as greatly accelerated timeframes to adapt and adjust accordingly. The pandemic has also shone a glaring spotlight on a variety of workplace safety issues, including engineering, administrative and safety practice controls, personal protective equipment, respiratory protection, training, employee relations, hazard communication, recordkeeping, workers’ rights, and up-to-date policies and procedures. Please join Peter Gould, Matthew Cooper, Cole Wist and Dr. Emily Haas of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) for the second session in the U...

On April 10, 2020, the US Department of Labor’s (“DOL”) Occupational Safety and Health Administration (“OSHA”) issued interim guidance on employers’ duties as they relate to recording cases of COVID-19. OSHA’s position—effective immediately and for the duration of the public health crisis—is that employers must report to OSHA any confirmed COVID-19 illness diagnosis (defined as “an individual with at least one respiratory specimen that tested positive for SARS-CoV-2”) that is both (i) work-related, and (ii) involves OSHA general recording criteria. A condition is work-related if “an event or exposure in the work environment either caused or contributed to the resulting condition or significantly aggravated a pre-existing injury or illness.” The work environment is the employer’s “establishment” and such “other locations where one or more employees are working or are present as a conditi...

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a major impact on all aspects of life for all Americans and we are all still adjusting to this new “normal,” which is anything but normal.  Federal administrative agencies and their employees of course have not been immune to the effects of the current crisis and they, like private sector employers and employees, are still acclimating as they try to balance safety needs with the statutory and regulatory responsibilities, including enforcement of various employment laws.  In this post, we look at how certain federal agencies, including the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the National Labor Relations Board, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, and the Department of Labor have been impacted by the COVID-19 crisis and provide insight into what employers need to know in order to comply with .adapted policies and procedures. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) In an effort to consolidate relevant COVID-19 in...

Over the past several months, the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has steadily issued guidance to both employers and agency officials on strategies to navigate regulatory matters related to the COVID-19 pandemic, as we have discussed here, here, here, here, and here. However, federal OSHA is not the only government agency addressing the crisis at hand. Below is an outline of efforts OSHA State Plan agencies have also implemented, as of April 23, 2020, to address COVID-19 issues in the workplace. Should you operate in any one or more of these jurisdictions, you will want to be cognizant of the guidance outlined below. ( Please note that this outline is limited to measures that state “OSHA” agencies have taken to address COVID-19; it does not include all state measures that state governments have taken, such as shelter-in-place orders, business closures, public health orders, and so forth ). No additional COV...

The California Occupational Safety and Health Administration has issued new guidelines for protecting workers as businesses expand activities during the continuing COVID-19 pandemic. These guidelines include updated control measures as well as specific topics which must be addressed in employers’ COVID-19 response plans and written Injury and Illness Prevention Programs. Not only could failure to follow these guidelines result in adverse actions by CAL-OSHA, such deficiencies could also increase an employer’s liability in the event of suits regarding workplace exposure by employees or customers. Join Michael Kelly, Matthew Cooper and Lilah Sutphen for a webinar on Thursday, May 28 at 2 pm PDT as they discuss this topic important to all California employers. Register at this link .

On May 19, 2020, OSHA issued two updated memorandums to regional administrators and state plan designees. The first updated the agency’s enforcement guidance for recording COVID-19 cases in the workplace. As we discussed here, OSHA originally indicated on April 10, 2020 that it would be exercising “enforcement discretion” and focusing COVID-19 recordkeeping requirements in the healthcare, emergency response, and correctional institution fields only— except where there was objective evidence reasonably available to an employer that a COVID-19 case was work-related . The aim was to allow vital COVID-19 response resources to be allocated elsewhere. The new memorandum rescinds the original guidance, however, and now states that all employers subject to its illness record-keeping rules (which is most employers) must now track and report workplace COVID-19 cases if the following three criteria are met: The COVID-19 case is confirmed (as defined by the CDC); The case i...