Employers Must Pay Employees for Deminimus Startup Time Booting up work computers takes time. The call center representative employees (CCRs) at Nelnet Diversified Solutions LLC (“Nelnet”) had to clock in after their computers were up and running and software was launched, but they were not being paid for that time....
OSHA’s COVID-19 Vaccine-Testing Mandate Back in Effect On December 17, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals lifted the nationwide stay on the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS) that had been imposed by the Fifth Circuit, requiring the ETS’s employer vaccination and testing requirements for COVID-19...
California Imposes New Indoor Mask Mandate Citing a sharp increase in COVID-19 infection rates, California is reimposing a statewide mask mandate on indoor settings for one month, regardless of vaccination status. California State Health & Human Services (CDPH) announced that beginning Wednesday, December 15, 2021, running through January 15, 2022,...
Another First Amendment Ruling in Employment Law The case is American Society of Journalists and Authors Inc. v. Bonta, 9th Cir., No. 20-55734 (Oct. 6, 2021), petition for rehearing en banc denied (Nov. 23, 2021). California's "ABC test" for classifying workers as employees or independent contractors, does not violate the...
Can Employees Send Confidential Information To The Media? The case is Breiterman v. U.S. Capitol Police, D.C. Cir., No. 20-5295 (Oct. 15, 2021), where the U.S. Capitol Police demoted a sergeant to private first class for disciplinary reasons and later fired her when she ‘exercised’ her First Amendment rights by...
WHEN IS IT AN UNDUE HARDSHIP FOR AN EMPLOYER TRYING TO WORK THROUGH A COVID-19 VACCINE ACCOMMODATION REQUEST? Employers face medical and sincerely held religious belief objections to COVID-19 vaccinations and anti-discrimination laws (e.g., Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”) and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (“Title...
Federal Appeals Court in New Orleans Blocks Federal Mandatory Vaccine Requirements for Large Employers The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans issued a stay temporarily blocking the Federal mandatory vaccination requirement for employers with 100 or more employees. The U.S. Department of Labor (“DOL”) immediately responded saying...
TODAY - OSHA ISSUED GUIDANCE FOR VACCINE MANDATES By December 4, 2021, large employers (those with over 100 employees, including remote and part time employees - everybody) must put in place vaccine mandate requirements for employees. Today OSHA issued the Emergency Temporary Standards (“ETS”) for large employers and Frequently Asked...
Employers Beware Productivity Quotas and Monitoring Can Cause New Claims Employers who have quotas for employees, run warehouses or distribution centers, or otherwise monitor productivity of employees: new law AB 701 applies to you.[1] Starting on January 1st, employers are prohibited from using quotas or productivity monitoring to interfere with...
Former Executive Awarded $10m Claim For Being Fired Because He Is a White Man David Duvall, a Michigan man who sued his employer, Novant Health, claimed in the employer fired him as a white man and replaced him with a Black woman and a White woman as part of the...