Coronavirus Update 1-4-2021: DOL approves telemedicine visits to establish a serious health condition under the FMLA

With the COVID-19 pandemic closing health-care-provider offices or severely limiting patient access, many have turned to telehealth to remotely obtain healthcare from the safety of their homes. The question arose, however, whether these remote visits would qualify as "treatment" under the FMLA's qualifying definition of a "serious health condition," which under the FMLA's regulations requires an "in-person visit to a health care provider," and does not include "a phone call, letter, email, or text message."

While you were celebrating your December holidays, the Department of Labor issued a Field Assistance Bulletin [pdf] addressing this issue. 

’Twas the Employment Law Night Before Christmas

In what has become an annual tradition for my final post of the year, I bring you the holiday classic, ’Twas the Employment Law Night Before Christmas.

To all of my readers, after a 2020 no one will ever forget, thank you all for reading, commenting, and sharing, and please have a happy and safe holiday season. I’ll see everyone on January 4, 2021, with fresh content to kick off the new year.

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’Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the office
Not a creature was stirring … well, just one of the bosses;
The bonuses were paid by the company with care,
In hopes that no ungrateful employees would swear.

Coronavirus Update 12-22-2020: Congress approves an FFCRA extension (sort of)

Late yesterday, Congress approved the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021, better known as its $900 billion COVID-19 rescue stimulus. President Trump is expected to sign it into law.

Buried within the bill's 5593 pages (on pages 2033 - 2037) is an extension of tax credits for paid sick and family leave under the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, which otherwise would have expired on December 31.

Worst Employer(s) of 2020: The Winners

It brings me tremendous joy to announce the Worst Employer(s) of 2020.

Coronavirus Update 12-21-2020: Ensuring compliance with your Covid safety protocols shouldn’t be a mission impossible

British newspaper The Sun published leaked audio capturing Tom Cruise angrily addressing two crew members who he believed had breached Covid-19 protocols while filming "Mission Impossible 7."

The best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear

In his semi-eponymous movie, Buddy the Elf famously explained, "The best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear." 

Today, I'm choosing to use my valuable internet space to spread some Christmas cheer of my own. Please don't worry, it's not me singing, which would spread whatever the opposite of cheer is. Instead, it's my resident songstress, Norah Marie, who used her iPhone to self-record and mix this lovely (IMHO) cover of "Jingle Bell Rock."

norah marie · jingle bell rock

Coronavirus Update 12-17-2020, part 2: The COVID-19 vaccine and race discrimination

One issue the EEOC omitted from its technical guidance on the COVID-19 vaccine is the issue of race discrimination. 

According to one recent study, 57% of African Americans say that they definitely or probably will not get the COVID-19 vaccine. Many point to their distrust of the federal government fueled by decades of medical studies on Black people, including the Tuskegee Experiment, which left hundreds of Black men untreated for syphilis between 1932 and 1972.

If you are going to adopt a mandatory vaccination policy for your workplace (which the EEOC says you can do, subject to reasonable accommodation exceptions under the ADA for medical issues and Title VII for sincerely held religious beliefs or observances), then you must account for the possibility of that policy having a disparate impact based on race. Otherwise, you might be setting yourself up for a potential race discrimination lawsuit.

* Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash