On September 8, 2020, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) issued updated guidance concerning COVID-19 and the workplace. The update provides much-needed answers to questions that have been troubling employers struggling to adapt to circumstances presented by the still-ongoing public health emergency. Can we test employees for COVID-19 prior to allowing them back in the workplace? The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) generally prohibits employers from requiring employees to submit to medical examinations or…

Back in March we posted here a piece about dismissing to protect the employer’s corporate reputation. In that case the employer made a very difficult choice between the claimed (ultimately, actual) innocence of the employee and the harm which continuing to employ him might do if he turned out to be guilty. On the facts, the dismissal was found fair, but as if to reinforce that dismissing to protect corporate reputation is always a risky…

The 2021 edition of The Best Lawyers in America® has recognized 107 Squire Patton Boggs lawyers across 46 practice areas, including 19 of our Labor & Employment and Employee Benefits lawyers who received recognition in the areas of Employment Law – Individuals, Employment Law – Management, Labor Law – Management, Litigation – Labor and Employment, Workers’ Compensation Law – Employers, and Employee Benefits (ERISA) Law.…

In the U.S., employees must be paid overtime compensation at a rate of one-and-one-half times their regular rate of pay for all hours worked in excess of forty (40) per workweek unless specifically exempted by law. For many employees, this means payment of a straight time hourly rate, and then payment of one-and-one-half times that hourly rate for each of their weekly overtime hours. However, for many years, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has…

Friday’s headline in The Telegraph above heralds the launch of a new Government campaign to encourage those currently working from home back into their physical offices.  A series of noticeably unnamed Government Ministers and “sources” told the paper that “bosses at struggling firms will find it easier to hand out P45s to people they never see than to those who have been at their desks during the pandemic” and separately, “People need to understand that…

On August 8, 2020, President Trump issued an Executive Order titled “Memorandum on Deferring Payroll Tax Obligations in Light of the Ongoing COVID-19 Disaster” (the “Order”)[1]. The Order directs the Secretary of the Treasury to permit deferral of employee Old Age, Survivors and Disability Insurance (“OASDI”) taxes for payroll dates on and after September 1, 2020 through December 31, 2020. The Order was the subject of a prior Blogpost on August 11, 2020.…