On June 10, 2021, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issued a mandatory workplace safety rule requiring employers to take specified steps to protect workers from COVID-19. However, the rule applies only to health care settings. Referred to as an emergency temporary standard (ETS), the rule exempts fully vaccinated workers from masking, distancing, and
The National Advisory Committee on Occupational Safety and Health will conduct a virtual meeting on June 22, 2021, to address current workplace issues and its prior work. The details are set forth in today’s U.S. Department of Labor announcement. The DOL and federal OSHA have been shifting priorities since the initiation of the Biden
The US Department of Labor recently published answers to frequently asked questions (FAQs) and model notices for the new COBRA premium subsidy made available to many employees and their dependents under the American Rescue Plan Act. As explained in an earlier post, the new law allows “assistance eligible individuals” (AEIs) – defined as COBRA
Effective today, May 6, 2021, the Department of Labor’s (DOL’s) Trump-era independent contractor rule has been officially withdrawn. The Trump-era independent contractor rule, which never went into effect due to the change between presidential administrations, would have made it easier for companies to classify workers as independent contractors.
The Trump-era independent contractor rule expressly adopted and clarified the “economic realities test” for worker classification, and would have narrowed the focus of the inquiry to five distinct factors: (1) the nature and degree of the individual’s control over the work; (2) the individual’s opportunity for profit or loss; (3) the amount of skill required to perform the work; (4) the degree of permanence in the relationship between the individual and the potential employer; and (5) whether the work performed by the individual is part of an integrated unit of production. The independent contractor rule veered away from the classic application of the economic realities test applied by the courts by providing that the nature and degree of the worker’s control over the work and the worker’s opportunity for profit or loss were “core factors” that were to be given greater weight than the other factors. If both of those two “core factors” supported the same classification, there would have been a “substantial likelihood” that the classification is appropriate. Many viewed this as a substantial departure from the prior multi-factor “totality of the circumstances tests,” because if the “core factors” both pointed towards one classification, the analysis was likely to be complete and unaffected by the three remaining factors.
The Biden administration’s DOL has withdrawn the independent contractor rule for several reasons, including that:
On February 5, 2021, federal OSHA issued a proposed rule to update the US Department of Labor’s Hazard Communication Standard (HCS or HazCom) to align with the seventh revision of the United Nations’ Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals (GHS). In support of its proposed rule, OSHA asserts the update will increase
Employers with either 500 or more employees within the City of Los Angeles, or who employ at least one employee in Los Angeles and have 2,000 or more employees within the US, must now provide supplemental paid sick leave for reasons related to the coronavirus pandemic for those employees performing work in the city. Notably,
On April 1, 2020, the US Department of Labor (DOL) issued a temporary rule providing key guidance on paid leave under the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA). The rule clarifies that employees covered under a federal, state or local stay–at-home order may be eligible for paid FFCRA leave but only if work or telework
The US Department of Labor (DOL) issued guidance which answers a number of key questions on the new federal coronavirus paid sick leave and emergency Family and Medical Leave Act leave, including when the law takes effect, how to count employees for purposes of the 500-employee threshold, how to treat related employers and other key
The US Department of Labor’s March 7, 2019 Notice of Proposed Rulemaking reset the salary requirements for the Fair Labor Standards Act’s white-collar exemptions. By now we all know the new numbers: the minimum salary threshold will increase from US$455 per week (US$23,660 annually) to US$679 per week (US$35,308 annually) for the executive, administrative, professional,
Earlier this week, the U.S. Department of Labor (“DOL”) issued six advisory opinion letters on various Family and Medical Leave Act (“FMLA”) and Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) issues. From time to time, opinion letters such as these are issued to provide legal guidance to employers.
The DOL opinion letter likely to be of most interest to US companies is the one that addressed whether an employee in good health who voluntarily chooses to undergo organ donation surgery could use FMLA leave for post-operative care. See FMLA2018-2-A. The DOL opined that this would qualify as a “serious health condition” under the FMLA if it involved either “inpatient care” or “continuing treatment.” See 29 C.F.R. §§ 825.114 and 825.115.
Though the DOL opinion letter touched on medical certification as a “basic requirement” for FMLA leave, the DOL did not appear to find it significant that the employee was choosing to undergo the surgery voluntarily and “solely to improve someone else’s health.” Instead, it focused on the medical treatment that would be involved in the organ donation surgery.
The other DOL opinion letters covered a variety of topics, and set forth the following opinions: