Duane Morris will be hosting the webinar, “Cyber Risks: Learning from Months of Remote Work and Preparing for the Next Wave,” on February 11, 2021, from 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. Eastern.
This is the second session of the Duane Morris COVID-19: Navigating Forward Webinar Series. For more information and the registration link, please visit the firm website.
The ongoing pandemic has inevitably caused employers to address a significant number of issues regarding employees and working practices. Mandatory vaccination has become an acute and difficult topic in the context of the employment relationship.
To read the full text of this blog post by Duane Morris partner Nic Hart, please visit the Duane Morris London Blog.
In response to the country’s continued battle with the COVID-19 pandemic, in late December, Congress passed and the president signed the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 (CAA). The CAA extends the deadlines for various relief programs in the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act and its progeny. This development brings some welcome news for both employers and employees, though the incoming administration has all but assured changes are on the horizon.
To read the full text of this Duane Morris Alert, please visit the firm website.
The Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) partially sunset as of December 31, 2020. Employers are no longer required to provide FFCRA leave to employees. For New York employers, though, their responsibilities under Senate Bill 8091, which guarantees certain leave, benefits and job protections to employees affected by COVID-19, remain in full force.
To read the full text of this Duane Morris Alert, please visit the firm website.
In our December 15, 2020, Alert, we advised that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) would provide updates to its COVID-19 guidance, “What You Should Know About COVID-19 and the ADA, the Rehabilitation Act, and Other EEO Laws,” to address employer rights and responsibilities related to COVID-19 vaccination policies. Right after our Alert was issued, on December 16, 2020, the EEOC updated its COVID-19 guidance with questions and answers for employers who seek to have their employees inoculated against this deadly virus.
To read the full text of this Duane Morris Alert, please visit the firm website.
With the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine approved for emergency use authorization by the Food and Drug Administration and the CDC and approval of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine expected imminently, America is seeing light at the end of the very long tunnel that has been the pandemic. Accordingly, many employers have begun to consider whether they should have a mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policy to protect employees and return to some normalcy in the workplace. An employer’s decision to require employee COVID-19 inoculations as a condition of workplace entry raises a number of legal, evidentiary and practical issues.
Update: On December 16, 2020, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission released guidance on COVID-19 vaccinations, including employer mandates for the vaccine. Duane Morris will cover this development in an Alert to be published soon.
To read the full text of this Duane Morris Alert, please visit the firm website.
California has enacted new and detailed emergency safety and health regulations affecting virtually anyone who runs a business, school or other enterprise in the Golden State. California’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (Cal/OSHA) has issued emergency temporary standards for COVID-19 to clarify employer obligations during the pandemic and to prevent outbreaks. The new standards took effect November 30, 2020, and will remain in effect until May 30, 2021, subject to extension or adoption as a permanent regulation.
To read the full text of this Duane Morris Alert, please visit the firm website.
On December 1, 2020, a challenge brought by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to the new H-1B wage levels and the new definition of “Specialty Occupation” was upheld by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
To read the full text of this post by Duane Morris partner Valentine A. Brown, please visit the Duane Morris Immigration Law Blog.
The rapid transition to remote work in the spring of 2020 brought with it new risks for businesses managing their confidential information. Helpfully, existing trade secret law is designed to adapt to circumstances, and can cover the transition to remote work. For proprietary information to continent to qualify as a trade secret, the plaintiff must show that it took “reasonable measures” under the circumstances to protect the secrecy of the information.
To read the full text of this post by Duane Morris partner Gregory Bombard, please visit the Duane Morris Non-Compete & Trade Secrets Law Blog.
On November 16, 2020, New Jersey Governor Murphy signed Executive Order 196, which further tightens restrictions on various types of gatherings, both indoor and outdoor. This new order comes on the heels of Executive Order 194, which created additional restrictions for certain industries, and Executive Order 192, which created a uniform set of safety restrictions for all businesses in the state. Executive Order 196 essentially decreases indoor and outdoor gathering limits in response to the rising number of positive COVID-19 cases.
To read the full text of this Duane Morris Alert, please visit the firm website.
