In August and September, the Department of Labor provided some guidance for parents on when they can take sick leave or family leave under the FFCRA, a law passed after the COVID-19 pandemic broke out, to look after a child who is staying home from school. The FFCRA provides both sick leave and family when an employee is unable to work “due to a need to care for his or her son or daughter whose school, place of care, or child…
Earlier in September, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (better known to lazy people as the “EEOC”) issued new Q&As to supplement the Q&As it has been issuing from time to time since March. As for some takeaways from the new Q&As, employers: (1) May administer tests for the presence of the COVID-19 virus (but not antibody tests!) to employees when evaluating their initial or continued presence in the workplace. (2) May ask ALL employees physically entering the workplace if…
The Department of Labor recently revised some of its temporary regulations on the sick leave and family leave provisions of the FFCRA, a COVID-19 relief bill passed in March, in response to an early August decision by a federal judge in New York disallowing several provisions of the regulations. According to the Labor Department, the revisions: (1) reaffirmed the requirement that employees may take leave only if work is available to them, (2) reaffirmed the requirement that employees have their employer’s…
Today the Department of Labor’s new proposed rule on determining whether a worker is an employee or an independent contractor was published in the official Federal Register, triggering a 30-day public comment period that will last until October 26, 2020. The DoL says the rule adopts an “economic reality” test to determine whether a worker is an employee or an independent contractor, and, instead of identifying a list of factors as in the past, it identifies two “core” factors and…
On Monday, Bexar County’s Judge Nelson Wolff once again extended his COVID-19 executive order, this time all the way to October 28th. For employers in San Antonio and Bexar County, the most notable provision was one extending the requirement that commercial entities providing services directly to the public have a health and safety policy that makes employees and visitors wear face coverings when it is not feasible to maintain six feet of social distancing. The executive order specifically cited provisions…