Has the COVID-19 pandemic prompted a rise in class action employment lawsuits? Not yet, according to the numbers. For now, COVID employment litigation has been comprised mostly of single-plaintiff claims. Whether the dam will hold, however, remains to be seen. The Jackson Lewis COVID-19 Employment Lit-Watch tracks labor and employment litigation developments nationwide, as sifted from thousands of court filings daily, resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. The tool allows users to track the trajectory, over…

On September 29, 2020, Governor Newsom signed Assembly Bill 2537, which significantly expands upon employers’ existing baseline obligations for providing a safe and healthful work environment.  The new bill creates specific requirements regarding general acute care hospitals’ distribution and supply of personal protective equipment (PPE).  Its purpose is to protect healthcare workers from COVID-19. Before the passage of this legislation, California broadly required that employers provide safe and healthful places of employment and to…

On September 28, 2020, Governor Newsom signed Assembly Bill 2043 (“AB 2043”) which tasks the Division of Occupational Safety and Health within the Department of Industrial Relations (“Cal/OSHA”) with conducting a statewide outreach campaign to apprise Agricultural employees of best practices for coronavirus (“COVID-19”) infection prevention and their right to receive COVID-19-related employment benefits, including access to paid sick leave and workers’ compensation. Anticipated Guidance for Agricultural Employees Under the emergency bill, Cal/OSHA will disseminate…

The Sacramento County Board of Supervisors has passed the Sacramento County Worker Protection, Health and Safety Act of 2020, which is effective October 1, 2020. The ordinance, which applies only to businesses located in the unincorporated areas of Sacramento County, requires employers to implement specified social distancing, mitigation, and cleaning protocols and practices in the workplace. The required protocols include: maintaining and implementing specified cleaning and disinfection protocols; establishing protocols for action if a worksite…

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) may resume implementation of the new Public Charge Rule, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has ruled. The factors that are considered under the new Public Charge Rule include the applicant’s use of public benefits, employment status and history of employment in the U.S., among others. Since 2018, the Administration has been trying to enforce a new Public Charge Rule that expands the public benefits that…

The City of San Diego enacted emergency ordinances requiring fair employment practices in response to job and economic insecurity due to the COVID-19 pandemic and stay-at-home directives.  The City of San Diego COVID-19 Building Service and Hotel Worker Recall Ordinance (“Recall Ordinance”) and the City of San Diego COVID-19 Worker Retention Ordinance (“Retention Ordinance”) went into effect immediately upon their passage on September 8, 2020. The Ordinances apply to three categories of businesses and employers…

Governor Newsom signed Senate Bill 1159 (“SB 1159”) on September 17, 2020, which could expand the definition of injury under the workers’ compensation system to include illness or death resulting from COVID-19. In May, the governor had issued an executive order which created a presumption that any COVID-19-related illness of an employee shall be presumed to arise out of and in the course of employment to award workers’ compensation benefits if certain conditions were met.…