As summarized in a previous GT blog post, California’s Blueprint for a Safer Economy established criteria for easing and tightening restrictions on the activities of California residents and businesses based on counties’ Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection rates. When the system took effect initially on Aug. 31, the state assigned each county one of four color-coded tiers – Widespread (purple), Substantial (red), Moderate (orange), or Minimal (yellow) – based on two factors: average daily…

By now, most California employers have heard of AB 5, which, along with the California Supreme Court decision, Dynamex Operations W. Inc. v. Superior Court, 4 Cal. 5th 903 (2018), has significantly affected the way many companies do business in California. While AB 5 was disruptive, it was also short-lived. Read the full GT Alert, “Move Over AB 5, There’s a New Kid on the Block.”…

With California employers now grappling with remote workforces, all the time and effort spent ensuring compliance with sick leave legislation – particularly at the local level – should be re-visited. For example, let’s say an employer has physical office locations in Ventura County and Orange County, and therefore has been subject to and complied with only the state sick leave law, as there are no local ordinances in those areas. However, with that employer’s office…

Effective Jan. 1, 2021, eligible individuals employed by Massachusetts employers will be entitled to receive paid family and medical leave. Join GT Boston’s Employment Law Group for a timely webinar on the Massachusetts Paid Family and Medical Leave Act, its impact on FMLA and other employer leave programs, and what Massachusetts employers should do now to get ready. Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2020 12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m. EST To register, click here. Presented by the…

New York state’s new paid sick leave law will mandate the payment of sick leave to employees in New York state beginning Jan. 1, 2021. As discussed below, the New York City Earned Safe and Sick Time law, which has already required sick time for New York City employees, was amended this week to enhance the terms of that law largely in accordance with the New York state law. Read the full GT Alert,…

On Sept. 14, 2020, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy signed into law S2380, which creates a rebuttable presumption of workers’ compensation coverage for Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases contracted by “essential employees” during the ongoing public health emergency. The law took effect immediately, and applies retroactively to March 9, 2020, when the governor first declared the current state of emergency. Read the full GT Alert, “New Jersey Joins Other States in Creating Rebuttable …

On Sept. 9, Governor Newsom signed AB 1867, a statewide COVID-19 supplemental paid sick leave (SPSL) mandate, into law.  AB 1867’s sick leave provisions are codified at California Labor Code §§ 248, 248.1, and 248.5. This new law went into effect immediately, but since “[t]he requirement to provide COVID-19 supplemental paid sick leave…take[s] effect not later than 10 days after the date of [the law’s] enactment,” employers effectively had a 10-day grace period (until…