COVID-19

The San Francisco Office of Labor Standards Enforcement (OLSE) issued new guidance on February 2, 2022 pertaining to the use of San Francisco Paid Sick Leave during the pandemic. This new guidance supersedes OLSE’s March 24, 2020 guidance.

While the February 2, 2022 guidance shares much of the same language as the March 24, 2020 guidance, San Francisco employers should be aware of the following changes:

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Earlier this week, Beth West wrote a blog update about the 6^th Circuit Court of Appeals vacating the stay of OSHA’s vaccine or test mandate that applies to employers with more than 100 employees (Click here to read). Ms. West noted that the challengers to the mandate would seek immediate review by the U.S. Supreme Court. The Appellants in those cases filed their appeals of the 6^th Circuit’s ruling and filed applications to again stay the OSHA vaccine or test mandate.

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A blog we published here on May 28, 2020, correctly noted that California’s workers-compensation laws may immunize employers from most civil lawsuits alleging that employees became infected with the coronavirus on the job.  That blog also correctly emphasized that other types of lawsuits may spread from lax pandemic protocols.  This week the California Court of Appeal issued a unanimous three-judge decision outlining a potential path for workers and their families to get around workers-compensation immunity and maintain a possible new strain of civil actions.

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On Friday, December 17, 2021, the federal Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals granted an emergency motion to dissolve the stay of the federal OSHA COVID-19 vaccine or test mandate for large employers.

Background.

On November 5, 2021, OSHA issued an Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS or the standard) to protect the health of employees by mitigating the spread of this historically unprecedented virus in the workplace. The ETS requires that employees who work for an employer with 100+ employees, as well as certain government employees, to either obtain a COVID-19 vaccine, or undergo regular weekly tests. The next day, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit stayed the ETS pending judicial review, and it renewed that decision in an opinion issued on November 12. Multiple petitions challenging the ETS—filed in Circuit Courts across the nation—were consolidated into the Sixth Circuit to be decided together.

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As you’ve probably read in the news, a number of legal challenges have been filed against the OSHA COVID-19 vaccination/testing ETS for large employers.  The 5^th Circuit issued a stay on enforcement of the ETS on November 6^th and then, later on November 12^th reaffirmed that stay holding that the challengers of the ETS are likely to succeed on the merits of the case.

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