On August 23, the FDA granted full approval for the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for individuals age 16 and older. Some employees who expressed vaccine hesitancy because the FDA approval was only an emergency use authorization (EUA) may have less hesitancy now. This may be a good time, through employee education, to once again encourage your employees to get vaccinated.
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On August 12, the Supreme Court of the United States denied eight students’ request to block Indiana University’s requirement that students be vaccinated against the coronavirus. The students’ case, Klaassen v. Trustees of Indiana University, is the first test of a COVID-19 vaccine requirement in the context of an educational institution to arrive at the Supreme Court.
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With COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations on the rise, Philadelphia’s Department of Public Health announced a new set of mask mandates, which will go into effect at 12:01 a.m. on August 12, 2021.
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On July 27, 2021, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) updated its Interim Public Health Recommendations for Fully Vaccinated People and scaled back the relaxed masking guidelines for vaccinated individuals that it issued in May 2021.
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Traveling abroad for work, school or pleasure is fraught with complexities due to COVID-19 restrictions and regulations. Before employees plan international travel, it is important to be aware of travel restrictions, quarantine requirements and any travel prohibitions.
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ach year, we share with you what the IRS calls its “Dirty Dozen” list of tax scams. This year, the pandemic has given rise to new, and even more sophisticated scams. The scams on the 2021 IRS Dirty Dozen list can be encountered at any time during the year, but they peak during tax season(s). With numerous changes impacting taxpayers due to the global pandemic such as extended and inconsistent tax deadlines, various stimulus payments, COVID-related unemployment or economic hardship payments, tax scams continue to occur at an alarming rate and an increasing number of people fall prey to these scams. Don’t be one of them. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
Some scams are complex, with sophisticated algorithms being used to steal identities. Other scams are as simple as picking up the telephone to trap unaware and unsuspecting taxpayers. Once again and not surprisingly, phishing and phone scams are two of the most prevalent ways in which taxpayers have been victimized. As expected, as the country continues to recover from the effects of a global pandemic, many entries on this list are associated with the impacts of COVID-19.
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The HERO Act, signed into law on May 6, 2021, and amended on June 14, 2021, is legislation designed to create enforceable health and safety regulations aimed at preventing airborne infectious diseases in the workplace. The law applies to all New York employers, regardless of size, and includes a requirement that employers establish a joint labor-management workplace safety committee. The law also includes an anti-retaliation provision and provides for civil penalties and a private right of action.
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On May 6, 2021, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed into law “first in the nation” legislation designed to create enforceable health and safety regulations aimed at preventing airborne infectious diseases in the workplace. The New York Health and Essential Rights Act takes effect in stages and requires the New York State Department of Labor to develop and publish model airborne infectious disease exposure prevention standards that employers can choose to either adopt or use as a guide in developing their own airborne infectious disease exposure prevention plans.
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On June 17, 2021, following a dizzying series of events, the California Occupational Safety and Health Administration voted to adopt new emergency temporary standards for COVID-19, revising employer obligations designed to curb the spread of COVID-19 in the workplace. In addition to bringing face coverings and social distancing requirements into alignment with federal guidance issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and a recent order by the California Department of Public Health, the new standards update what is required of employers in creating mandatory COVID-19 prevention programs, including investigating and responding to COVID-19 in the workplace and providing engineering and administrative controls.
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On June 10, 2021, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration submitted for publication in the Federal Register its COVID-19 Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS), setting forth new mandatory safety requirements designed to protect workers from COVID-19. The much-anticipated ETS is generally applicable only to certain healthcare workplaces and imposes differing obligations with respect to vaccinated and unvaccinated employees in various contexts.
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