Blogs

Employment Law

Virginia Enacts Dramatic and Far-Reaching Employment Law Protections

Virginia Governor Ralph Northam has signed into law nearly two dozen bills that provide significant new rights for Virginia employees, including legal protections to combat wage theft, prohibit non-compete covenants for low-wage workers, and expand the scope of the ban on workplace discrimination. Also signed into law by Governor Northam were enhanced employee whistleblower protections…

April 27, 2020

Business and Financial Services

What Can Employers Ask and Do About Their Employee’s Health During the Coronavirus Crisis? Answers from the EEOC

EEOC Update, May 7, 2020 The coronavirus pandemic has had an undeniably dramatic and devastating impact on public health in the U.S. It also has had dire consequences for the U.S. economy and businesses across the country. Many nonessential businesses have been forced to close altogether. Those that have been permitted, or required, to continue providing essential services, including many retailers, have struggled to find ways to keep workers from getting sick from coronavirus, and keep their…

April 14, 2020

Business and Financial Services

Documentation and Recordkeeping: COVID-19 Paid Leave and Employer Paid Leave Tax Credits

On March 18, 2020, President Trump signed into law the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (“FFCRA”), which creates two new emergency paid leave requirements in response to the COVID-19 global pandemic. The FFCRA covers private employers with fewer than 500 employees and certain public employers. Overview of Paid Sick Leave Law Division E of the…

April 7, 2020

Business and Financial Services

Emergency Paid Leave Laws: DOL Issues Additional FAQs to Answer Employer Questions

By all accounts, the coronavirus public health crisis continues to worsen, affecting the health of many of your workers. On March 30, 2020, the governors of Maryland and Virginia both issued expansive stay-at-home orders. The District of Columbia was already under similar restrictions. Most employees of non-essential businesses on both sides of the Potomac will be forced to stay away from work, as a result of yesterday’s executive orders. Schools and day care facilities for the children of…

April 2, 2020

Business and Financial Services

DOL Issues Second FAQs: Provides More Guidance to Employers on Paid Leave Laws

On March 26, 2020, the Department of Labor (DOL) issued a second set of FAQs to address some of the fundamentally important questions that employers have been asking about new paid sick and FMLA leave under the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA), which goes into effect on April 1, 2020 . The second FAQs elaborate in some areas on the first set of FAQs issued by the DOL and in other areas provide a first look at the agency’s thinking about how the new paid leave laws are intended…

March 30, 2020

Business and Financial Services

Trump Signs Law: U.S. Workers Get Expanded FMLA Leave and Paid Sick Leave

Yesterday, the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (the “Act”) became law when President Donald Trump signed it. The Act will provide significant relief to a wide swath of workers across the country, in response to the COVID-19 public health emergency. In particular, the Act provides millions of U.S. workers with up to twelve weeks of FMLA leave (the “FMLA Expansion Act”), with most of it paid, and as much as two weeks of paid sick leave (the “Paid Sick Leave Act”) for personal or family…

March 19, 2020

Business and Financial Services

House Amendments to Families First Coronavirus Act – Mixed Bag for Employee Leave Benefits

The U.S. House of Representatives passed the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (the “Act”) with bi-partisan support in the wee hours of the morning on Friday, March 14, 2020. The Act provided for expanded FMLA benefits (the “FMLA Expansion Act”), for reasons related to government quarantine orders, employee exposure to the coronavirus, and care of family members who are affected by the coronavirus or resulting school or daycare closures. The Act also provided both full- and part-time…

March 18, 2020

Business and Financial Services

Families First Coronavirus Response Act

Early on Saturday (March 14, 2020) morning, the U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation it dubbed the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (the “Act”), designed to provide significant relief to a wide swath of workers across the country, in response to the COVID-19 public health emergency. Of particular note, the Act would provide the vast majority of U.S. workers with up to twelve weeks of FMLA leave (the “FMLA Expansion Act”) and as much as two weeks of paid sick leave (the “Paid…

March 16, 2020

Employment Law

New Virginia Law Requires Employer Disclosure of Requested Personnel Records

A quick heads up for those Virginia employers whose policy has been to deny employees access to or copies of their employment records. As of July 1, 2019, Virginia law now requires employers to “furnish a copy of all records or papers retained by the employer in any format” that reflect the following information about the employee: Dates of employment with the employer; Wage or salary history during the employment; Job description and job title during employment; and Injuries sustained by the…

October 3, 2019

Employment Law

EEOC Report: Workplace Sexual Harassment Complaints are Up

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) recently released its discrimination enforcement and litigation statistics for its fiscal year ending September 20, 2018. The report provides employers with a detailed breakdown of the 76,418 charges of workplace discrimination the EEOC received in FY 2018. The numbers are consistent with anecdotal reports in the mainstream media of a sharp increase in sexual harassment activity since the New York Times and The New Yorker first published…

May 10, 2019