Under the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), certain individuals are eligible to receive fully subsidized COBRA coverage for a six-month period which began on April 1, 2021. The APRA also requires that employers notify affected individuals of this benefit by May 31, 2021. Thankfully, last week, the Department of Labor issued template notices and a FAQ on these topics. To provide a recap, the ARPA defines those (and their covered family members) who can receive…

Last week, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announced that the 2019 and 2020 EEO-1 Component 1 data collection will open on Monday, April 26, 2021. As a reminder, private employers with 100 or more employees, as well as federal contractors with 50 or more employees, are required to submit EEO-1 Component 1 data, which includes sex and race/ethnic information for the workforce. The deadline to submit 2019 and 2020 EEO-1 Component 1 data will…

Employment practices liability insurance policies, commonly referred to as EPLI, provide protection against large jury verdicts rendered in cases involving employment discrimination, harassment and other employment law violations. These policies also typically call for insurers to pay the costs of defense counsel in excess of the employer’s retention. While these policies may indeed provide significant protection, they have also proved problematic in one respect to many employers, because many EPLI policies specify that defense counsel will…

At the beginning of the pandemic, many employers began to require employees to be screened for COVID-19 symptoms prior to starting work. Common screenings include daily temperature checks and symptom questionnaires, as well as questions about recent travel or recent exposure to COVID-19. Predictably, lawsuits have started to surface by employees alleging state and federal wage violations due to non-payment of wages for time spent undergoing mandatory employer screenings. For example, in federal court in…

In what would amount to the most significant overhaul to American Labor law since the passage of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) in 1935, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Protecting the Right to Organize Act (PRO) on March 9. While the PRO has several more legislative stops on the road to becoming law, if enacted, the PRO would result in sweeping changes to the NLRA, including, amongst others: Expanding the definition…

The light at the tunnel is near! Due to the increase in vaccinations in the United States, the CDC has issued updated guidance regarding “fully vaccinated” individuals. For purposes of the guidance, an individual is considered fully vaccinated two or more weeks after receiving the second shot of a two-dose vaccine (Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna) or two or more weeks after receiving one shot of a one-dose vaccine (Johnson & Johnson). The CDC guidance eases up…

With recent weather happenings leaving much of Ohio covered in varying degrees of snow, ice, and that all-too-familiar gray slush that ensues as it all melts, re-freezes, and melts again, now seems like a good time to discuss the workers’ compensation implications when employees get hurt trying to traverse this sometimes perilous terrain. In Ohio, the basic rule of workers’ compensation is that it covers injuries sustained both in the course of and arising out…