Wednesday evening is the first night of Passover — one of my favorite Jewish holidays. (And, not surprisingly, not the first time I’ve written about it.)
Why? Traditionally, it is one of the few times the entire extended family gets together and celebrates with great homemade food.
Think matzo ball soup, gefilte fish, hard-boiled eggs, latkes (yes, my family eats them for Passover too) and, of course, my mother’s meatballs (made with my late-grandmother’s recipe, of course).
But this year will be different. No family seder. At least not in person. Instead, we are using the 2020 technology instead – a video conference.
Call it the Year of the Zoom Seder.
Will it work? Well it won’t be the same, but it’ll be different. And that’s just fine by me. At least we’re together.
And what about the food? Well, as it turns out, my mother lives nearby and we did a distanced tradeoff. I received a fresh batch of matzo ball soup and meatballs in exchange for a lesson on Zoom.
Call it a win-win, in another busy week for employers. Here are a few more new developments to know about before the Passover and Easter holidays take over the rest of the week.
- Late Tuesday, April 7th, Governor Lamont issued another Executive Order 7V rolling out new “Safe Workplace” rules for essential businesses to keep operating. The DECD then released more specific guidelines which you can find here; essential businesses need to be following these rules effective immediately as they are “binding” and “shall be mandatory throughout the state, for essential businesses and nonprofits and any other business or nonprofit permitted to operate.” My colleague Peter Murphy and I have written a recap of these rules which you will find on the Shipman & Goodwin LLP Coronavirus Resource page starting early Wednesday here.
- The Connecticut DOL has also uploaded still more revisions to its FAQ. Among the new questions it helps to answer: What should employers do if an employee who has been furloughed refuses to come back; can the employer challenge that decision? (Answer: Contest unemployment.)
- Connecticut Rep. Rosa DeLauro has penned a letter to DOL Secretary Eugene Scalia challenging the agency’s regulations on FFCRA which she says, contradict the plain language of the paid leave provisions. Jon Hyman of the Ohio Employer Law Blog has already done a good recap here which I can’t improve on so I’d read that.
- OSHA has released 10 steps that employers can take to improve workplace safety in this time of pandemic. Most of these are found in the Connecticut guidance too including the usual “Encourage workers to stay home if sick” advice that has been promulgated before.
- And finally, if you’re reading this before 11 a.m. on Wednesday, it’s not too late to join me and Senator Chris Murphy for a webinar on all the latest for employers on the pandemic response. Don’t miss it.