On September 30, 2020, section 196-b of the New York State Labor Law went into effect.  The legislation, which provides for the immediate accrual of employer-provided sick leave, permits sick leave to be taken beginning on January 1, 2021.  We wrote about the New York State Paid Sick Leave law previously, and have outlined the situations under which it must be provided to employees.  Like New York City’s paid sick leave entitlements, the law applies…

The Families First Coronavirus Response Act (“FFCRA”) became law on March 18, 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.  As we previously blogged on several (okay, numerous) occasions, the FFCRA comprises the Emergency Paid Sick Leave Act (“EPSLA”) and Emergency Family and Medical Leave Expansion Act (“EFMLA”), which provide paid leave in connection with certain COVID-19 related absences from work. Rather than go into each of those circumstances, you can click on any of…

We have seen a significant number of OSHA investigations in recent weeks in response to reports of employee deaths and illnesses due to COVID-19.  In the height of the pandemic, employers, including nursing homes, were unclear regarding their obligations to report employee incidents of COVID-19 to OSHA due to the difficulty in determining whether such cases were “work-related.”  Below we have outlined OSHA’s reporting requirements and expectations regarding investigations into whether COVID cases are work-related,…