By: Shireen Wetmore, Ann Marie Zaletel, Chantelle Egan, and Kerry Friedrichs Seyfarth Synopsis: Many employers are asking whether they need to provide documentation to employees performing work during a shelter-in-place or similar order and increasingly, employees are demanding such documentation.  Should employers provide documentation to employees that explains their status as supporting essential, critical businesses? Across the country, states and localities are enacting orders or laws that restrict which businesses may remain…

By: Anne Dana, Shireen Wetmore, and Chantelle Egan Increasing fears about community spread of COVID-19 have caused a growing number of states and other localities to issue orders requiring those who are traveling to or returning to the state from out-of-state or specific “hot-spots” to quarantine for up to 14 days. The goal of such orders is to diminish community spread of the disease.  However, for “essential” workers – who are frequently, but…

By Christine Hendrickson and Annette Tyman Synopsis: On Equal Pay Day 2020, Seyfarth’s Pay Equity Group is pleased to release two reference guides: its Fourth Annual 50-State Pay Equity Desktop Reference and 2020 Developments in Pay Litigation Report. Equal Pay Day is always a day of deep reflection and connection for our Pay Equity Group. The day is filled with webinars, phone calls and interviews, flights, in-person meetings and hallway greetings.  This year, instead of…

By Jennifer L. Mora On Monday, March 23, 2020, the United States Department of Transportation issued guidance for DOT-regulated employers, employees, and their service agents that might be facing challenges in meeting the department’s drug and alcohol testing requirements due to the pandemic. The guidance, which can be found here, serves to “provid[e] maximum flexibility to allow transportation industries to conduct their operations safely and efficiently during this period of national emergency.” According to…

By Steve Shardonofsky, Linda C. Schoonmaker, Vanessa Rogers, and Joshua D. Seidman Seyfarth Synopsis:  Last April, the Dallas City Council passed an ordinance requiring employers to provide employees who work within the City of Dallas with 48 or 64 hours of paid sick leave per year, depending on size.  Despite pending lawsuits challenging the legality of the ordinance, the ordinance took effect August 1, 2019. Since that time, the City of Dallas…

By Gerald L. Maatman, Jr. and Matthew Gagnon Seyfarth Synopsis: In the past 24 hours, the EEOC released a statement: What You Should Know About the ADA, the Rehabilitation Act, and COVID-19, which gives employers some guidance on how they can navigate the safety concerns associated with COVID-19 while staying in compliance with the federal disability discrimination laws. The EEOC was careful to explain that although those laws are still very much in effect, they…

By Katherine F. Mendez and Samantha L. Brooks Seyfarth Synopsis: In our fifth installment on the presidential candidates’ stances on future of work issues, we provide an update from the campaign trail and Capitol Hill. In our fourth installment in our “where the presidential candidates stand” series, we discussed the candidates’ and the President’s positions on preparing and training employees for a highly technical workplace, and how they plan to invest in the workforce.  A…