- National Labor Relations Board and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announce new partnership to address employer surveillance, monitoring, and data collection in the workplace
- Worker advocates call on OSHA to set standard on employee surveillance
- NLRB General Counsel may seek to invalidate non-compete clauses in employee severance agreements
Wednesday, April 12, 2023
Federal agencies need to stay in their lanes
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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Wednesday, August 3, 2022
You won’t like OSHA when it’s angry
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Thursday, July 28, 2022
Unlike ordering at Chick-Fil-A, legal compliance isn’t chosen from a menu.
"We are looking for volunteers for our new Drive Thru Express!🚘 Earn 5 free entrees per shift (1 hr) worked. Message us for details"
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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Wednesday, January 26, 2022
Coronavirus Update 1-26-22: OSHA doesn’t need an ETS to go after your business’s Covid-safety deficiencies
With the Supreme Court effectively killing OSHA Covid-19 vax-or-test Emergency Temporary Standard, and OSHA now officially withdrawing it, employers might think that they are beyond the reach of OSHA for Covid safety-related issues. If you are one of those employers that thinks this way, you are very mistaken.
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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Monday, December 20, 2021
Coronavirus Update 12-20-21: OSHA’s “vax or test" mandate is back on … for now
OSHA is gratified the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit dissolved the Fifth Circuit’s stay of the Vaccination and Testing Emergency Temporary Standard. OSHA can now once again implement this vital workplace health standard, which will protect the health of workers by mitigating the spread of the unprecedented virus in the workplace.
To account for any uncertainty created by the stay, OSHA is exercising enforcement discretion with respect to the compliance dates of the ETS. To provide employers with sufficient time to come into compliance, OSHA will not issue citations for noncompliance with any requirements of the ETS before January 10 and will not issue citations for noncompliance with the standard’s testing requirements before February 9, so long as an employer is exercising reasonable, good faith efforts to come into compliance with the standard. OSHA will work closely with the regulated community to provide compliance assistance.
That's what OSHA posted on the heels of the 6th Circuit's decision dissolving the 5th Circuit's stay of the agency's "vax or test" emergency temporary standard.
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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Friday, December 17, 2021
BREAKING NEWS: 6th Circuit dissolves stay and re-starts OSHA’s vax-or-test emergency standard
In a 2-1 decision, the 6th Circuit has dissolved the 5th Circuit’s prior stay of the OSHA vax-or-test emergency temporary standard. The opinion is available here.
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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Wednesday, December 15, 2021
Tragic workplace emergency safety lessons from a candle factory
Thus far, eight employees have tragically died inside the Mayfield Consumer Products candle factory from the tornado that tore through Mayfield, Kentucky, and left the factory a pile of rubble. That number, however, could have been much less.
According to NBC News, as the storm warnings came and tornado sirens blared, as many as 15 employees asked managers for permission to leave so that they could take shelter in their own homes. Instead of granting permission, managers threatened to fire anyone who left their shift early. Now at least eight employees are dead, and many more are injured.
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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Wednesday, November 17, 2021
Coronavirus Update 11-17-2021: OSHA’s vax-or-test emergency standard is on life support
Yesterday brought two huge developments in the battle over OSHA's vaccine-or-test emergency temporary standard.
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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Saturday, November 13, 2021
BREAKING NEWS: 5th Circuit issues new order continuing its stay of the OSHA vaccine-or-test ETS
In a 22-page opinion issued last night that I can only describe as a scathing rebuke of OSHA's vaccine-or-test emergency temporary standard, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals formally granted a stay of the ETS pending a full review of the pending motion for permanent injunction, and further ordered that "OSHA take no steps to implement or enforce the Mandate until further court order."
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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Thursday, November 4, 2021
BREAKING NEWS: OSHA publishes its vaccine-mandate emergency temporary standard
Write down November 4, 2021, as the Employment Lawyer Superbowl. At 8:45 am this morning, OSHA published its Covid-19 Vaccination and Testing Emergency Temporary Standard in the Federal Register. You can download and read all 490(!) pages of it here.
Most importantly, this rule takes effect immediately upon its publication in the Federal Register — i.e., today — but employers have 30 days, or until December 5, 2021, to comply with all requirements except testing for employees who are not fully vaccinated (which has a January 4, 2022, compliance date).
This means that by no later than January 4, 2022, employers will need to ensure that their employees have received their final vaccination dose, with weekly testing required for unvaccinated employees thereafter.
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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Wednesday, October 27, 2021
Coronavirus Update 10-27-2021: No, employers, you can’t fire employees who complain about Covid health and safety issues
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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Thursday, October 14, 2021
Coronavirus Update 10-14-2021: We still don’t know what OSHA’s vaccine standard says … but we’re getting closer
Late Tuesday, news broke that OSHA had submitted in vaccine mandate Emergency Temporary Standard to the White House’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs for its review. What does this mean? It means that OSHA has taken the first important step towards publishing the ETS and implementing its vaccine mandate for employers with 100 or more employees.
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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Friday, June 11, 2021
Coronavirus Update 6-11-2021: OSHA’s long-awaited COVID-19 safety rule is a big bowl of … meh
Today is the 15-month anniversary of the COVID-19 pandemic. All that employers have asked of OSHA during the past year and a quarter is some clear guidance on the rules and expectations to keep employees healthy and safe. Yesterday, OSHA finally complied … sort of.
For all other employers, OSHA updated its voluntary guidelines to focus primarily on protections for unvaccinated and otherwise at-risk workers. These updates largely track the CDC's updated guidelines for the fully vaccinated.
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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Tuesday, June 8, 2021
Coronavirus Update 6-8-2021: OSHA updates employers of N95 use
OSHA recently provided employers an update on the proper use of N95 masks, including a new video, poster (in English and Spanish), and FAQ (which makes is clear that "an N95 respirator is effective in protecting workers from the virus that causes COVID-19).
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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Wednesday, January 20, 2021
What employers can expect from Biden’s presidency: A temporary emergency OSHA standard for COVID-19
Today marks the one-year anniversary of the identification of the first COVID-19 case in the United States. On January 20, 2020, the State of Washington and the CDC confirmed that someone in Washington State had contracted the virus. Since then, 24,809,840 additional Americans have contracted Covid, and 411,520 have died from it.
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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Thursday, November 5, 2020
Coronavirus Update 11-5-2020: OSHA levies $2 million in COVID-related citations and penalties

For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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Wednesday, August 19, 2020
Coronavirus Update 8-19-2020: Government watchdog says OSHA whistleblower claims up, investigations down during pandemic
According to a report released yesterday by the Office of Inspector General, since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, OSHA has been flooded with complaints by employees that their employers retaliated against them for making virus-related complaints. Yet, because of staffing shortages within OSHA's whistleblower protection program, the agency has been severely hampered in its ability to promptly investigate claims, resulting in significant investigatory delays.
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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Monday, January 27, 2020
Does the ADA protect employees who travel to areas that potentially expose them to coronavirus?
Coronavirus is 2020’s pandemic du jour. It’s a serious, and potentially deadly, respiratory virus that (likely) started in Wuhan, China, and has now made its way into the U.S. with five confirmed cases.
Suppose you fire an employee who you fear might have been exposed to the virus. She exhibits no symptoms, but because she had recently traveled to an area in which she could have been exposed, you think it’s better safe than sorry not to have her work for you anymore. She sues for disability discrimination, claiming that you “regarded her” as disabled. Does she win her case? The outcome might surprise you.
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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Thursday, October 24, 2019
OSHA publishes new guidance on distracted driving
The reaction time of someone texting while driving is 35 percent worse than someone driving without any distractions. Compare that figure to the 12 percent deficit a drunk driver faces, and you begin to understand why distracted driving is so dangerous. Indeed, in 2018 alone, 4,637 people died in car crashes related to cell phone use.
OSHA understands this danger as well. Thus, in conjunction with Drive Safely Work Week (which occurred earlier this month), OSHA announced an educational campaign calling on employers to prevent work-related distracted driving, with a special focus on prohibiting texting while driving.
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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Wednesday, April 10, 2019
When workplace training goes very, very wrong

An Indiana school district, however, had a different idea of how to train its employees to prepare for an active shooter.
This employer had its employees shot in the back, execution style, with plastic pellets.
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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