Despite our best attempts to suppress the memory, we all remember it well. Just over two years ago, the pandemic triggered state-ordered shutdowns. Our economy obviously slowed to a crawl, and employers everywhere immediately found themselves with surplus workers. The result was mass layoffs, flooding the labor market with available employees. To get employees back
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Allegheny County Paid Sick Leave Ordinance – Take Two
By Langdon Ramsburg on
Posted in Workplace Compliance
In January, we wrote about Allegheny County’s paid sick leave regulations that took effect in December 2021. Now, we write to tell you that the regulations have changed. The change will affect only one key industry – construction.
When the Allegheny County Board of Health drafted its paid sick leave regulations, it clearly modeled them…
Federal Contractors: Reminder of Approaching OFCCP Certification Obligations
By Langdon Ramsburg on
Posted in Affirmative Action
Historically, the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (“OFCCP”) has not required federal contractors to submit proof that their written affirmative action plans were completed. The only time that a contractor had to produce evidence of its plan was during an OFCCP audit. As many federal contractors now know, that is about to change.
In…
Vaccines: Where are We?
By Langdon Ramsburg on
Posted in Employer Liability, Workplace Trends
After the country waited with anticipation for the better part of a year for a vaccine that would return us to some sense of normalcy, the FDA finally approved two vaccines in December. The plan was to vaccinate frontline healthcare workers first – for obvious and understandable reasons. It was also the plan that 20…
DOL Temporary Regulations Answer Questions About Employee Documentation Needed to Support Paid Sick and Family Leave Under the FFCRA
By Langdon Ramsburg on
Posted in Workplace Trends
Yesterday, the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) became effective, granting eligible employees emergency paid sick leave and emergency paid family leave in response to COVID-19. On the same day, after weeks of employers (and their attorneys) attempting to decipher the nuances of the leave requirements, the Department of Labor (DOL) issued temporary regulations, shedding…
President Trump Signs Families First Coronavirus Response Act to provide Paid FMLA Leave and Paid Sick Leave in Response to COVID-19
By Andrew L. Levy, Langdon Ramsburg & Adam Santucci on
Yesterday, President Trump signed into law historic legislation that will have a significant impact on a many employers nation-wide. The legislation, called the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, has many provisions. We will focus this discussion on the workplace issues that most employers can expect to face.
Paid Sick Leave
The law includes the Emergency…
Supreme Court Rules Fair Share Fees are Unconstitutional
By Langdon Ramsburg, Adam Santucci & Jen Will on
This morning the Supreme Court issued its long-awaited opinion in Janus v. AFCSME , holding that requiring public sector employees to pay fair share fees to unions violates the First Amendment. As we discussed in our prior posts , a fair share fee (sometimes called an agency fee) is a fee that non-union members must…
Is the Inability to Perform the Required Duties of the Job Just Cause for a Public Employee’s Discharge? It Depends. (PART II)
By Langdon Ramsburg on
Yesterday, we reported on a Commonwealth Court decision that basically concluded that an arbitrator’s award ordering the reinstatement of a discharged employee who is incapable of performing his job violates the “essence test.” We also noted that a subsequent decision of the court seems to be a bit in conflict with that holding. Let’s take…
Is the Inability to Perform the Required Duties of the Job Just Cause for a Public Employee’s Discharge? It Depends. (PART I)
By Langdon Ramsburg on
In November 2017, the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania issued an opinion concerning an arbitrator’s reinstatement of a state correctional officer (“CO”). The CO was responsible for monitoring inmates who worked on the prison’s loading dock. As far back as 2015, the CO’s supervisors noticed unauthorized food items in the dock area. Despite instruction to remove…
White House Office of Management and Budget Hits the Pause Button on EEO-1 Compensation Data Requirement
By Andrew L. Levy & Langdon Ramsburg on
Posted in Affirmative Action, Workplace Trends
Employers with 100 or more employees (and federal contractors with 50 or more employees) must submit an EEO-1 Report annually, detailing the race, gender, and ethnicity of its workforce. In September of 2016, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) issued a revised EEO-1 Form, which would have required employers to submit extensive data related to…