Archive for coronavirus

Employee Gets COVID at Work + Employee’s Family Members Then Get COVID = Family Members Can Sue You

Just when California employers thought things could not get any worse… In See’s Candies, Inc. v. Superior Court, the California Court of Appeal addressed the question of whether a family member of an employee who contracted COVID while at work can sue their family member’s employer for damages. …

Are You Thinking About Reopening Your Workplace? Think First About Your Safety Obligations to Your Employees.

Many employers are eager to return to the office and “get things back to normal.”  If you are an employer who is considering requiring or allowing employees to return to an in-person workplace (or if you have already done so), the first thing to understand is that there…

Updates to San Francisco’s “Safer Return Together Order” Effective August 20, 2021

Keeping up with the ever-changing COVID-19 landscape can be difficult, and the Delta variant seems to be escalating the timing for officials to get more guidelines in place.  On August 12, 2021, there were some major changes made in San Francisco by the Department of Health, which will…

Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes: Cal/OSHA and COVID

June has been a turbulent month for Cal/OSHA – and for California employers doing their best to protect the health and safety of their employees as California begins to open up. Back and Forth After implementing detailed and complicated amended Emergency Temporary Standards (ETS) on June 3, the…

The Future is Hybrid: Key Considerations for a Remote Workforce

According to new data from MicKinsey & Company, 9 out of 10 companies are sticking with the hybrid workplace structure.  This style combines onsite and remote work and is one of the lasting results of the COVID-19 pandemic.  When implemented correctly, hybrid work can boost employee productivity, performance,…

San Francisco Hazard Pay Ordinance Expires Today

San Francisco’s emergency COVID-Related Hazard Pay Ordinance (the “Ordinance”), which became effective on March 22, 2021, required certain large San Francisco employers (primarily grocery stores and drug stores with 500 or more employees worldwide) to pay employees an additional $5.00 per hour in hazard pay on top of…

Post-Pandemic Benefits: Employers Are Changing Their Benefits Priorities

The pandemic has changed everyone’s lives in so many ways.  We likely will not realize all of those changes for a long time.  Work life has changed for nearly everyone during this time, and our relationships to work, and how they relate to our personal lives, have been…

To (Require) Vaccines or Not To (Require) Vaccines: That Is the Question

California is preparing to reopen, and employers are readying to welcome their workforce back to offices.  One of the biggest questions on the minds of many business owners is how to bring their workforce back together in “real time” while still maintaining the safety of all employees, as…

Supplemental Paid Sick Leave is Back in California – What Employers Need to Know

In September 2020, Governor Newsom signed AB 1867 into law, which created Supplemental Paid Sick Leave (“SPSL”) rights for millions of California employees who were not eligible for such leave under the federal Families First Coronavirus Response Act (“FFCRA”).  We blogged about AB 1867 here. Since AB 1867…

How the New “American Rescue Plan Act” Impacts Employers and Employees

Now that President Biden has signed the American Rescue Plan Act (“ARPA”) into law, we’ve had the chance to review the massive legislation.  And we’ve discovered some little-known provisions in the law that directly impact employers and employees.  Here’s a quick summary of those provisions: Incentives for Employers…