Gov. Ned Lamont has signed into law House Bill 6515, entitled “An Act Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair”, commonly known as the “CROWN Act”, which makes it illegal to discriminate based on a person’s hair texture or protective hairstyle in employment, public accommodations, housing, credit practices, union membership, and state agency practices.  The legislation is aimed at protecting people of color from discrimination based upon their hair. The legislation does so…

Connecticut’s Sexual Harassment Training Deadline Extended to April 19, 2021 The CHRO has announced a third extension of the deadline to provide sexual harassment training for all employees, including supervisors and non-supervisors.  In November 2020, the CHRO had announced that the deadline would be extended for a second time until February 9, 2021.  Now, the training deadline has been similarly extended to April 19, 2021 pursuant to the same extension of the declaration of public…

Partial Plan Termination Relief Many employers may be facing what the IRS guidance refers to as a partial plan termination. Generally, this occurs when the number of employees participating in a qualified retirement plan, such as a 401(k) plan, decreases by 20% or more during the Plan Year. This is calculated by dividing all employer initiated severances by the number of active participants, including employees who became participants during the year. If there is a…

HR administrators, employers, employees, and even independent consultants are all well-advised to remember the approaching March 15th deadline for the distribution of annual bonuses and many other forms of compensation that were earned in 2020. Ever-lurking tax traps wreaked on businesses and individuals by Section 409A of the Tax Code makes each year’s due date to meet 409A’s “short-term deferral” exemption a critical one.  For calendar year employers and employees, this deadline is March 15.…

We have been getting questions about the extent to which employers may encourage their employees to obtain COVID-19 vaccines when they become eligible.  There are a couple of thorny legal issues that may arise when employers offer incentives in connection with a voluntary employer-sponsored COVID-19 vaccination program.  We are aware that several large employers are currently offering incentives for employees to get vaccinated. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) strictly limits medical examinations and disability-related…

Contained within the recent Stimulus Bill is the Taxpayer Certainty and Disaster Tax Relief Act of 2020. Section 214 of that Act provides flexibility for Health Flexible Spending Accounts (Health FSA) and Dependent Care Accounts (DCA). Background HFSAs and DCAs have certain limitations and restrictions known as the ‘use or lose’ rule, which generally provide that amounts not used by the end of the year are forfeited. Prior to the temporary changes described below, these…