Paid COVID-19 Leave: It’s Not Over Yet!!
Sherman & Howard
by Genevieve Servoss
1y ago
Brooke A. Colaizzi Colorado employers must continue to provide paid COVID leave to employees who have public health emergency related leave available. Recently, the federal government extended the public health emergency declaration related to COVID-19 for an additional 90 days. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra recently extended the public health declaration effective July 15, 2022 through at least October 13, 2022.  Under Colorado’s Healthy Workplaces and Families Act (HFWA), paid leave for COVID-19 circumstances must be provided for the duration of the public health em ..read more
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Wanna Get to Court? Now You Can: Supreme Court Refuses to Compel Arbitration for Airline Baggage Loaders
Sherman & Howard
by Kim Vinje
1y ago
By John Melcon In a unanimous decision issued Monday, the Supreme Court refused to reroute an airline cargo loader’s underpayment claims to private arbitration. The case, Southwest Airlines v. Saxon, No. 21-309 (June 6, 2022), is a rare example of the high Court declining to enforce an arbitration agreement, but the decision’s narrow grounds mean it is unlikely to have a major impact on the validity of mandatory arbitration agreements in other contexts. Like many employees and independent contractors, Latrice Saxon, a “ramp supervisor” for Southwest Airlines at Chicago’s Midway airport, signed ..read more
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Status Update on Public Health Emergency Leave
Sherman & Howard
by Genevieve Servoss
2y ago
Carissa Davis The Department of Health and Human Services renewed the public health emergency (“PHE”) determination on April 12, 2022. The 90-day renewal took effect on April 16, 2022, and if not renewed again, will expire in mid-July. Under Colorado’s Healthy Families and Workplaces Act (“HFWA”), employers are required to provide extra paid leave to employees when there is a public health emergency (“PHE”) and for 4 weeks after the expiration of the PHE. Confusion has resulted due to multiple government officials and agencies, on both the federal and state level, making multiple emergency and ..read more
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National Labor Relations Board’s General Counsel Abruzzo Seeks to Eliminate Secret Ballot Elections
Sherman & Howard
by Genevieve Servoss
2y ago
Patrick R. Scully and James S. Korte The National Labor Relations Board’s (“NLRB” or the “Board”) General Counsel, Jennifer Abruzzo, is attempting to revive unions’ ability to win recognition from employers without a secret ballot election. In a brief filed April 14, 2022, General Counsel Abruzzo called on the Board to reinstate the seventy-three-year-old Joy Silk Mills standard, which was abandoned by the Agency in the 1960s.   If the Joy Silk Mills standard is revived by the Board, an employer could not refuse to recognize a union that presented a majority of signed authorization c ..read more
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NLRB General Counsel Seeks to Ban Employer-Led Meetings to Discuss Union Representation
Sherman & Howard
by Genevieve Servoss
2y ago
James S. Korte National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB” or the “Board”) General Counsel, Jennifer Abruzzo released a Memorandum on April 7, 2022, stating that she would seek to ban mandatory anti-union meetings in the workplace. Abruzzo’s memorandum, addressed to the regional directors, stated that anti-union meetings “inherently involve an unlawful threat that employees will be disciplined or suffer other reprisals if they exercise their protected right not to listen to such speech.” Abruzzo believes that prior Board cases that have permitted such meetings, are “at odds with fundamental labor-l ..read more
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Hasty Action Dooms Biden’s Withdrawal of the Independent Contractor Rule
Sherman & Howard
by Genevieve Servoss
2y ago
Jane Waterman-Joyce The Biden Administration’s rush to withdraw a Trump-era rule standardizing the test for determining whether a worker is an independent contractor overlooked key administrative requirements for the process, causing a federal district court to reinstate the Trump-era rule. An essential part of hiring workers is knowing when those individuals are employees, with the rights and protections so associated, and when workers may be classified as independent contractors. The federal government uses an assessment known as the “economic realities” test to determine employee or indepen ..read more
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Job Reassignment with Reduced Hours and Pay: “Punishment” or “Reasonable Accommodation”?
Sherman & Howard
by Genevieve Servoss
2y ago
John Melcon It’s been said that one person’s trash is another person’s treasure. A similar principle applies in employment law, where managers and workers sometimes develop contradictory perceptions about employment decisions. What a manager views as a reasonable accommodation (i.e., of an employee’s religion or disability), the employee might consider punishment or discrimination. Thing is, it’s generally illegal to discriminate against workers because of their religion or disability, so sometimes it falls to a court (or worse, a jury) to sort out who’s perception is right. That’s not always ..read more
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No Good Deed Goes Unpunished? CDLE’s Vacation Policy Guidance Unclear, Subjective
Sherman & Howard
by Genevieve Servoss
2y ago
Carissa Davis How does the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment (“CDLE”) view unlimited PTO/vacation (used interchangeably) policies? Permissible, but proceed with caution in administration and upon termination of employment—many policies may be unlimited in name only.    Over the past few years, unlimited PTO policies have surged in popularity for Colorado employers.  As reported in a previous advisory, in August 2019, the CDLE issued a regulation stating that the Colorado Wage Claim Act (“CWCA”) “does not allow a forfeiture of any earned (accrued) vacation pay.” Subsequ ..read more
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Significant Signals Disguised as Minor Clarifications? EEOC’s Updated Guidance on COVID-19 and Religious Accommodations Provides Further Insight
Sherman & Howard
by Genevieve Servoss
2y ago
Carissa Davis and John Melcon By now, many employers have received requests for religious accommodations from COVID-19 policies—primarily vaccination policies. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s (“EEOC”) guidance thus far, as reported through prior blogs, has remained largely consistent with pre-COVID-19 religious accommodation law. As we enter into the third year of the pandemic, the EEOC has again updated its principal guidance for employers: What You Should Know About COVID-19 and the ADA, the Rehabilitation Act, and Other EEO Laws. While many of the latest updates are unsurprisi ..read more
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Limited March 1-18, 2022 Dates for H-1B “Professional” Registration
Sherman & Howard
by Genevieve Servoss
2y ago
The U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services has now set the precise March dates during which an employer can seek to be selected to file an H-1B “professional” petition in hope of employing a valued foreign recruit.  The limited time period is from noon eastern time on March 1 until noon eastern time on March 18. Getting organized to file the short registration form early in the process is wise as there are typically about 3 times the number of employers seeking to be selected as slots available for the fiscal year.  Our immigration paralegal is prepared to assist clients through ..read more
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