On April 21, 2022, the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health’s (Cal/OSHA) Standards Board approved the Third Readoption of the state’s COVID-19 Prevention Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS). Per Governor Gavin Newsom’s Executive Order N-23-21, the Third Readoption will remain in effect for no longer than December 31, 2022. The Third Readoption makes some additional material changes and clarifications, including acceptable return-to-work criteria, elimination of certain cleaning and social distancing requirements, and creation of a “returned case” category of workers recovered from COVID-19. Employers in California should update their COVID-19 ETS policies to ensure continued compliance with Cal/OSHA’s changes in the Third Readoption.
In a global interview panel sponsored by Lexology, McDermott Partner Carole A. Spink discusses the most critical US legal issues for remote workers. Spink explains how US employers can best prepare for the continuation of remote work and its corresponding legal complexities.
As COVID-19 becomes an endemic threat, corporate officers should accept the fact that the virus will be a permanent enterprise risk for the indefinite future.
In thisFT Specialist article, McDermott Partner Michael Peregrine says corporate boards should place their focus on business and operational challenges that result from the pandemic. These include:
Enhanced workplace safety in response to delta’s extreme transmissibility;
An equitable, enforceable and sustainable approach to employees who do not get vaccinated;
The feasibility of current return-to-work plans;
Work-from-home arrangements as a more permanent employment model; and
The pandemic’s outsize impact on female employees.
One of the COVID-19 pandemic’s most insidious harms has been the impact on employee health, morale and productivity arising from the erosion of home/work boundaries. In this Forbesarticle, McDermott partner Michael W. Peregrine argues that the mitigation of such harms is a board’s business.
With a second wave of COVID-19 infections forecasted by some experts and many companies actually seeing improvements in productivity as their employees work from home, it’s very possible that the current state of affairs could become a new normal, with companies either continuing remote work indefinitely or at least revisiting their existing policies around occasional remote work.
TechStaffer polled business leaders and managers, including McDermott partner Carole Spink, to get input on where their organizations stand on their long-term outlook for remote work.
With the school year underway, employers in the United States face a new challenge: childcare-related leave and accommodation requests by employees. With widespread remote learning and evolving legal obligations to provide paid leave to working parents, employers must navigate unique staffing challenges while complying with the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) and other state and local leave laws. In our recent webinar, we outlined some of the current leave requirements regarding childcare obligations and practical solutions to navigate these uncharted waters.
The COVID-19 pandemic has put unprecedented strain on organizations of all sizes across all industries. The uncertainty of the “new normal” is leading some employers to consider extreme, and often unnecessary, new policies in anticipation of the eventual return to work. To properly navigate the complexities of these novel COVID-19 employment issues, you need innovative but practical solutions.
Learn key takeaways from our third webinar in our Return to Work Virtual Toolkit series that focuses on how to avoid legal landmines as you prepare to bring your employees back to work.
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