Just when you had your COVID-19 leave policies in place, Congress goes and passes new legislation: the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). Remember, as we outlined in a previous blog post, the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) was passed in March of last year and provided that employers with fewer than 500 employees
Tell Me Again — Do We Have to Give FFCRA Leave in 2021?
2020 is in the rearview mirror. Whew! Unfortunately, COVID-19 is not gone and certainly not forgotten. The latest hot topic has been what to do with employees who think they should get paid leave for COVID-19 reasons that were provided under the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA.) (In case you need a refresher on
Good Riddance, 2020! Don’t Let the Door Hit Ya’ On the Way Out…
It was a mess of times. It was the masked of times. We all probably agree that 2020 presented unexpected and unwanted challenges to employers. It certainly made all of us address unprecedented issues. Let’s look back at some of the things we had to learn during the last 12 tumultuous months and see what
Don’t End Up in Detention: Guidance on Leave for Employees with School-Age Kids
It’s September, which for most means the beginning of fall and the start of a new school year. This school year not only looks different than those in the past, but it has also added to the stress and uncertainty facing families as parents attempt to balance work and family in this COVID-19 world. School
More Back to Work Thoughts: DOL Provides Tips on Accommodations Due to COVID-19
As the country moves closer to fully opening businesses, the Department of Labor wants to remind all employers that their obligations under the Americans with Disabilities Act are still in place for workers with disabilities. The Job Accommodation Network (JAN), a free service provided by the DOL’s Office of Disability Employment Policy, published several strategies
Consider the Circumstances: What to Expect When You’re Expecting Employees to Return to Work and They Refuse
As states begin to ease COVID-19 restrictions and individuals start to determine their own levels of acceptable risk, employers face yet another set of issues related to getting employees back to work. After many of you quickly pivoted to remote work to comply with stay-at-home orders, you are now reverse-engineering solutions to a new problem:
Yes, We Think We’re Open… Getting your Employees Back to Work During and After the COVID-19 Pandemic (Part I)
One of the hardest things about the COVID-19 crisis is that nobody is sure about when things will open back up and life can go back to “normal.” If you’re an employer, this likely means you have more questions than answers about how to move forward. What if an employee refuses to come back to
DOL’s Regulations for FFCRA, Part II: Calculating Amounts and Pay for Leave, Intermittent Leave, and How it Works with PTO
In Part I of this post we covered some of the logistics you need to get started with the FFCRA paid leave provisions. Today we will continue our review of the Department of Labor’s FFCRA temporary regulations and discuss the guidance on leave entitlement based on hours worked, calculating the amount of pay due for
DOL’s Regulations for the FFCRA, Part I: Who’s Covered, Posting, Documentation, Shelter-in Place Order, and Other Fun Items
At the end of last week, the Department of Labor issued 125 pages of FFCRA guidance, including actual temporary regulations and 20 new Q&As (so we are now up to 79 — but who’s counting?). While a full summary of these regulations would be quite long, we are breaking it up into multiple parts
And the Beat Goes On… DOL Publishes Second and Third Round of FAQs on FFCRA Answering Burning Employer Questions
The DOL is clearly plugged in to the issues and questions employers are running into as everyone plans to give notice of and grant paid leave under the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA). The DOL’s first round of FAQs (published on March 24, 2020) focused on how to determine if an employer meets the