News/Events/Blogs

On May 7, 2022 (Yes, that was a Saturday), CalOSHA issued a Fact Sheet and updated Frequently Asked Questions (“FAQs”) to align with, and explain, its revised Emergency Temporary Standards (“ETS”) for preventing and responding to COVID-19 in the workplace.

For the third time, CalOSHA has revised its Emergency Temporary Standards (“ETS”) governing workplace safety due to the COVID-19 pandemic.  The revised ETS are due to take effect on May 6, 2022 once they have been reviewed by the Office of Administrative Law and filed with the California Secretary of State.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”) adopted a temporary policy in response to the difficulties many individuals experienced with renewing documents.  As part of that temporary policy, employers were permitted to consider expired List B identity documents when completing the Form I-9 (“Employment Eligibility Verification”) which is required for employment in the United States.

On March 14, 2022, the EEOC released a new technical assistance guidance document entitled “The COVID-19 Pandemic and Caregiver Discrimination Under Federal Employment Discrimination Law.”

Essentially, the guidance reiterates that an employer may not discriminate against an applicant or employee under federal law on the basis of protected classes such sex (including pregnancy, sexual orientation, or gender identity), race, color, religion, national origin, age (40 or older), disability or genetic information. 

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:

On March 30, 2022, Labor & Employment attorney Ryan Abernethy presented the seminar titled Return to Work Guidance for California Employers for the Financial Executives International’s Sacramento Chapter.

Our Blog has been monitoring the ETS that OSHA issued in November 2021 that mandated employers of 100 or more employees to require their employees to obtain COVID-19 vaccinations or undergo regular COVID-19 testing instead.  We have kept you informed as this ETS made its way through the courts.  First, implementation of the ETS was stayed by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals (see blog on 11/18/2021), then the stay was lifted by the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals (see blog on 12/20/2021),

In the midst of the winter COVID-19 surge, Governor Newsom and California legislative leaders have agreed to fast-track a plan to provide emergency COVID-19 relief.  As part of that package, another allotment of Paid Sick Leave for COVID-19 will once again be available to California workers.

As Lizbeth West and James Kachmar wrote in previous blogs, here and here, the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals vacated the stay of OSHA’s vaccine-or-test mandate that applies to employers with more than 100 employees. Challengers of the mandate sought immediate review by the U.S. Supreme Court. The U.S. Supreme Court held oral arguments in the matter on an expedited basis on January 7, 2022, and just published an opinion today lambasting OSHA’s vaccine mandate and staying its enforcement.

Earlier this week, Beth West wrote a blog update about the 6th 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 6th Circuit’s ruling and filed applications to again stay the OSHA vaccine or test mandate.