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. The Court’s answer? A resounding “Yes.” The… Read More
Posts Tagged With: COVID-19
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 is no “back to normal,” at least… Read More
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 quickly go into effect. These updates were… Read More
On Today’s Hottest Topic: The Post-Lockdown Workplace
The wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown is shaping up to be an era of great confusion and uncharted territories. Rightfully so, employers are uncertain about what their workplaces will look like in a post-pandemic world. Many business owners are seeking clarity on their responsibilities and duties to their employees during this time. Some… Read More
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 Cal/OSHA Standards Board held an emergency meeting… Read More
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, and morale. But when employers fail to… Read More
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 their regular hourly wage, up to a… Read More
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 put under the microscope. In a recent… Read More
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 they are fundamentally obligated under Cal-OSHA to… Read More
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 expired on December 31, 2020, as did… Read More
