Archive
OSHA Updated Response Plan and Updated Reporting Requirements for COVID-19
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issued updated guidance including an Updated Interim Enforcement Response Plan for Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), and updated reporting requirements for employers to report work-related cases of COVID-19. As employers begin re-opening and bring employees back to work (and for those essential businesses continuing to operate), employers should keep these updates from OSHA in mind in forming their COVID-19 response plans.
Learn about the OSHA updates in our COVID-19 Alert.
DOL Issues New Final Rule on Fluctuating Workweek Calculations
The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) issued a final rule under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) allowing employers to offer bonuses, hazard pay, and other premium pay to employees whose hours, and regular rate of pay, vary from week to week. The final rule seeks to clarify the calculation of overtime pay for salaried, non-exempt employees who work hours that vary each week (known as the “fluctuating workweek”).
The DOL sought to clarify the rules around the fluctuating workweek now as employers bring employees back to work and implement new procedures for social distancing, such as with flexible or variable schedules.
Continue reading in our COVID-19 Alert.
EEOC Announces Delay in EEO Data Collections
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) announced that it will delay the collection of 2019 EEO-1 Component 1 data and the 2020 EEO-3 and EEO-5 data due to COVID-19. The EEOC stated that it recognizes the challenges that EEO filers are currently facing, and that delaying the collection will assist with the filers’ ability to provide accurate and timely data.
The EEOC expects that the collections may begin in March 2021, but will notify filers of the exact date when it is determined.
Morse is focused on assisting our clients through these unprecedented and challenging times. Please contact the Firm should you have questions concerning this subject, or any other COVID-19 response matters. You can find our complete COVID-19 resource collection here.
EEOC Issues Guidelines with Respect to COVID-19 “Higher Risk” Employees
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has identified certain groups of individuals as “higher risk” for severe illness from COVID-19.
A growing number of states have effected, or have announced, plans that relate to an easing of shelter-in-place and business closure orders. Many of these plans incorporate specific instructions that relate to higher risk employees, including instructions that exclude higher risk employees from worksites, under certain circumstances.
As emphasized in a recent federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) guidance, state re-opening standards that relate to higher risk employees must be interpreted, and applied by employers, in accordance with federal Americans with Disabilities Act anti-discrimination standards.
Employment law attorneys Matt Mitchell and Amanda Thibodeau summarize the EEOC Guidance in our COVID-19 Alert.
CDC Recommends New Workplace Sanitation Standards
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has issued new Guidance related to the re-opening of public spaces, workplaces, businesses, schools, and homes following COVID-19 shutdowns. Among other instructions, the Guidance offers very specific workspace sanitation standards that are designed to address continuing COVID-19 infection risks.
It is anticipated that this CDC Guidance will be a bedrock component of state and federal government policies related to the re-opening businesses following COVID-19 shutdowns. As such, it is critical that employers understand, and be in a position to execute on, the recommendations contained in the Guidance.
Of particular note, the Guidance instructs employers to:
- Develop formal sanitation plans that include strategies, that are customized for the specific elements of the employer’s workplace, for cleaning and disinfecting employee environments in preparation for, and following, business re-openings.
- Use specific, recommended disinfectant techniques for particular environments and surfaces.
- Adopt formal safe behavioral practices, including social distancing and employee hygiene and PPE standards.
- Consider changes to practice and procedures aimed at reducing infection risk, including changes to the way and frequency public spaces are used.
The Guidance includes a Cleaning and Disinfection Decision Tool that distills the advice into a form that may be incorporated into an employer policy document.
Morse is focused on assisting our clients through these unprecedented and challenging times. Please contact the Firm should you have questions concerning this subject, or any other COVID-19 response matters.
Massachusetts Employment Law Blog 