Rojgar Job News

If April Showers bring May…Oh never mind. In Connecticut, April might as well mean that the General Assembly is getting serious about the bills under consideration.  All the proposals that make headlines in February mean nothing until committees start to vote on the bills and the bills start getting the spotlight on them. Usually by now, we start to see a significant fall off between aspirational goals and practical bills. Not this year. Right now, however, it feels like there is still so much in play.  Things are changing rapidly so it doesn’t make a lot of sense to look at each bill individually.  But beyond the Paid FMLA and the Minimum Wage bills that have gotten the most press, there are still several others that are worth following. SHB 6913 would make massive changes to the state’s non-compete laws. The current version would limit non-competes to one year unless special circumstances would apply. Non-competes would also be unenforceable if the em...

Illinois Restricts Use of Artificial Intelligence in Hiring On May 29, 2019, the Illinois Legislature unanimously passed the Artificial Intelligence Video Interview Act , which, not surprisingly, addresses how employers use artificial intelligence to analyze job applicant video interviews to determine the applicant’s fitness for the position.  Under the new law (assuming it is signed by the Governor, as anticipated), before requesting an applicant submit to a video interview, employers will be required to: notify applicants for positions based in Illinois that it plans to have their video interview analyzed electronically; explain how the artificial intelligence analysis technology works and what general characteristics it will use to evaluate candidates; and obtain the applicant’s consent to these procedures (note: consent does not have to be in writing). Under the bill, employers are required to destroy all copies, including back-ups, of an applicant’s video int...

Between 23 and 26 May coming, more than 400 million European citizens will have the right to vote in the European Parliament elections, albeit some may perhaps do so more enthusiastically than others. Among those 400 million potential voters, a fair share are in active employment. So what do you need to know about the elections as an HR professional in Europe? We have rounded up the most common questions in the summary below.   Poland Can the employee vote during working hours? The elections in Poland will take place on Sunday 26 th May 2019 between 7 am and 9 pm.  However, this day is not a non-working day for everyone. Polish law does not regulate the issue of leave from work to vote. An employee who is in such a situation can apply for a leave to vote, but it will remain at the employer’s discretion whether or not to allow the such leave. Can your employee be summoned to man a polling station? The employee may apply to work at a polling station. The employer must exe...

Unlimited paid time off (“PTO”) is one of the new “it” workplace policies.  Adopted as both a means to attract and retain employees as well as to avoid having to coordinating and track specific grants of paid PTO or vacation– a task which can be arduous, particularly for smaller businesses – some employers have done away with traditional accrual-based PTO and vacation policies and instead offer employees the opportunity to take as much PTO as they wish.  Under these policies, employees can technically take as many paid days off as they choose, for any reason, including vacation, sickness, or personal reasons.  Some may think this makes great sense, and others may think it is crazy.  To a certain extent, these policies are a bit of both.  Before deciding to implement an unlimited PTO policy, it is important that employers consider the potential benefits and drawbacks of such a policy and have a clear plan for implementation. Be...

You can’t escape the panic spreading through mass and social media regarding the 2020 Wuhan Novel Coronavirus, a virus that has resulted in fatalities in China and infected thousands worldwide. Symptoms mimic that of influenza (fever, cough), but can include difficulty breathing, pneumonia, kidney failure, and death in severe cases. Despite the panic, there are only a handful of confirmed cases in the U.S., but this has done little to quell paranoia. With fear of the bug’s spread, many employers are bracing themselves the possibility of employee absences, either due to illness or fear of contagion in congested workplaces. Employers and human resources professionals can immunize themselves against some risk by implementing steps in advance. Familiarize yourself with state and local paid sick leave laws. Many U.S. states and municipalities now require that employers provide paid time off to employees to address their own illnesses or that of their family members. If you have...

On March 18, 2020, the U.S. Senate approved a bipartisan bill aimed at addressing the coronavirus. After rejecting two attempted amendments to the House bill, the “Families First Coronavirus Response Act” passed the Senate by a vote of 90-8. As we reported on March 17, the comprehensive emergency measure expands nutrition and food assistance, unemployment insurance benefits, and protections for workers exposed to risks by the pandemic. Most notably for employers, HR 6201 included provisions requiring paid sick leave and family leave for certain individuals impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, including the following provisions. A temporary, emergency expansion to the federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). Coverage From the effective date of the act (once signed by the President) through December 31, 2020, “eligible employees” will be entitled to take FMLA leave “because of a qualifying need related to a public health emergency.” Unlike under the e...

On Saturday, March 14, 2020, the US House of Representatives passed a version of HR 6201, referred to as the “Families First Coronavirus Response Act (Act).” The comprehensive emergency measure expanded nutrition and food assistance, unemployment insurance benefits, and protections for workers exposed to risks by the pandemic. Most notably for employers, HR 6201 included provisions requiring paid sick leave and family leave for certain individuals impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Before the bill reached the Senate, Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) insisted upon certain technical corrections to the bill. The House reconvened on Monday, March 16, 2020 to address these issues. Although the House rolled back many of the sweeping employee protections initially included in HR 6201, Representatives preserved certain significant employee protections described below. Before reviewing the below, it is important to note that the Act may (and will likely) change before it is presented to the...

What a week it’s been.  As of today, March 21, it has been three days since Congress passed the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA or the Act) and it was signed into law.  It’s also been three days during which employers have faced dwindling workforces due to employees who are self-quarantining due to exposure, or suspected exposure, to the virus, or because they live in states or cities with mandatory shelter-in-place orders preventing employees from reporting to work at businesses deemed “non-essential,” or because they must stay home with minor children whose schools and daycare facilities have closed due to concerns related to the COVID-19 pandemic.  And it’s been a confusing three days as employers have sought answers to many important but unanswered questions about the new law. With their employees struggling, some employers have been eager to provide immediate relief to employees under the emergency paid sick leave and paid...

During the second half of March 2020, the US Congress passed three landmark pieces of legislation addressing the COVID-19 (a/k/a novel coronavirus) pandemic.  One of these was the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA).  Under this law, employers of fewer than 500 employees are required to provide eligible employees with up to 80 hours of paid sick leave benefits as well as up to 10 weeks of partially-paid family leave, in each case, when an eligible employee is unable to work or telework due to certain COVID-19 related reasons.  The FFCRA went into effect on April 1, 2020, and on that same date, the U.S. Department of Labor issued extensive regulations providing further detail on the benefits available and employer obligations under the FFCRA.  In this In-Depth Analysis, Squire Patton Boggs will be analyzing these regulations in a five-part series of blog posts. In this first post, we address employer coverage, including when employers will be considered jo...

Throughout this past week, we have provided a comprehensive analysis of the various provisions of the federal Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA), the first ever federal law requiring the payment of paid sick leave and paid family leave for various COVID-19-related reasons.  These daily updates include consideration of employer and employee coverage; qualifying reasons for leave; complicated issues in paying employees; and job restoration requirements under both the paid sick and paid family provisions of the FFCRA.  For your convenience, we have compiled each day’s analysis here, and Squire Patton Boggs partners Jill Kirila and Laura Lawless will be doing a fulsome review of these provisions—and well as discussing challenges employers face in implementing difficult employment decisions, such as reductions-in-force, hours reductions, and furloughs—in a webinar on Monday, April 13, 2020 at 1 p.m. Eastern/10 a.m. Pacific.  To register, please c...

Previous installments of our series analyzing in detail the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) and the regulations interpreting that law issued by the US Department of Labor addressed the following issues: Part One – employee eligibility and employer coverage; Part Two – the coronavirus-specific circumstances why eligible employees may take paid leave; Part Three – the rules that apply to employees’ use of emergency paid sick leave and public health emergency paid family leave; and Part Four – how employers calculate the amount of pay to be provided as paid FFCRA leave. In this final installment, we close out our analysis of the FFCRA by discussing what happens at the end of FFCRA leave, including employee job restoration rights, and the protections in the law against discrimination and retaliation. Click here to download Part Five of the series.

The first three installments of our five-part series analyzing the US Department of Labor regulations interpreting the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) examined eligibility and coverage issues.  Part One looked at which employees are eligible to take, and which employers are required to provide, emergency paid sick leave and public health emergency paid family leave under the FFCRA.  Part Two addressed the coronavirus-specific reasons why an eligible employee may take job-protected paid sick leave or paid family leave.  Part Three analyzed the unique rules regarding how emergency paid sick leave and public health emergency paid family leave may be used. In this fourth installment, we consider how employers are to calculate the “regular rate of pay” in order to pay employees exercising paid leave rights under the FFCRA, a concept far easier in theory than in practice. Click here to download Part Four of the series.

The first two installments of our five-part in-depth analysis of the emergency paid sick leave and public health emergency paid family leave provisions of the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) – see here and here – analyzed the statutory language and regulations governing employer coverage, employee eligibility, the circumstances under which employees can request leave under the FFCRA, and what documentation an employer can require to support those requests. In Part Three, we now look at how employees may use leave under the FFCRA, including how the paid leave provisions of the FFCRA coordinate with existing employer and state law paid leave policies, how the two types of FFCRA paid leave coordinate with each other, and an issue under the FFCRA that vexes employers under even under non-pandemic circumstances: when can leave be used intermittently? Click here to download Part Three of the series.

In the first part of our in-depth analysis of the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) and its accompanying regulations, we addressed employer coverage and employee eligibility issues under the new law.   In the second installment of this series, we turn to looking at the coronavirus-specific reasons upon which an employee can obtain FFCRA leave, including a government quarantine order, the employee’s illness or seeking a medical diagnosis, the illness of a family member or other close relation, and caregiver and child care responsibilities.  We also examine the notice an employee must provide of the need for FFCRA leave, and what proof an employer can require an employee provide in order to support a request for leave under the FFCRA. Click here to download Part Two of the series.

Since early in the pandemic, the EEOC has been maintaining a Technical Assistance Questions and Answers page, which it updates from time to time. As employers’ attention turns to life after COVID-19 and planning for our return to the workplace, on April 17, the EEOC updated its COVID-19 pandemic informal guidance to address the challenges employers will face in the return-to-work transition. Reasonable Accommodations With respect to the reasonable accommodation process, the EEOC clarified that employers may provide temporary accommodations for disabilities if, due to pandemic conditions, the employer and employee lack the time to engage in a full interactive process, or if accommodation needs are expected to change as government-imposed restrictions are lifted. The EEOC approved of employers providing short-term accommodations with end-dates that evolve based on public health directives, or even providing accommodations on a “trial basis, with an end date, while awaiting rec...

The Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) has been in effect for nearly six weeks and, as practical challenges with interpreting and implementing the Act surface, the Department of Labor (DOL) continues to update its informal guidance in piecemeal fashion. On May 12, 2020, the DOL added five additional questions and answers to its FFCRA FAQs page: If the DOL brings an enforcement action against an employer on an employee’s behalf for failing to provide FFCRA leave, the employee may recover the entire amount due under the FFCRA, which is the greater of the employee’s regular hourly rate or the applicable minimum wage, subject to statutory caps (a maximum of $511/day for certain qualifying reasons, or two-thirds the employee’s regular rate, up to $200/day for other qualifying reasons). Despite confusing statutory language, the employee is not limited to recovery of only the applicable minimum wage if their regular rate of pay is higher. If a domestic worker, s...

Throughout the current public health emergency, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has been providing regular updates to its guidance on COVID-19 and compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and other federal employment statutes (see our prior posts here). On June 11, 2020, the EEOC provided answers to approximately 10 new questions, most addressing COVID-19 return-to-work issues. Among those, several have broad application to nearly every private sector employer. The EEOC clarified that although the ADA forbids discrimination against employees who are associated with persons with disabilities, the law does not require that employers provide an accommodation to a non-disabled employee based on the disability-related needs of a family member or other person with whom the employee is associated. This suggests therefore, for example, that an employer need not accommodate a non-disabled employee who requests to work from home because he or she lives wi...