Coronavirus Update 1-5-22: What the hell is the CDC doing?

Confused by the CDC's changed guidance on when employees can break isolation? I'm here to help.

The 1st nominee for the “Worst Employer of 2022” is … the crashing chief

Another year, another batch of awful employers for your consideration and your year-end voting. Might as well start off big.

Ogden boss allegedly tries to punch worker, rams his truck

The Standard-Examiner has the details.

Coronavirus Update 1-3-22: Happy 2020 … too 😞

As we start 2022 (HNY!) let's jump in the time machine and look ahead a couple of weeks to what I think is in our immediate pandemic future.

To catch a glimpse of what's coming here in the next 7-14 days, we need only look across the pond to Europe, which has been a great predictor thus far of what our Covid future looks like. For the whole of the pandemic, our Covid experience has trailed that of Europe by 2-3 weeks. Because of the quickened transmission and infection timeline of Omicron, we can likely shorten that to 7-10 days. 

’Twas the Employment Law Night Before Christmas (2021 edition)

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, tweaked for 2021.

As has been the case in years past, you can read my tale below. This year, however, you also get the holiday present of me reading it for everyone.

To all of my readers, new and legacy, thank you all for reading, commenting, and sharing throughout the year, and please have a happy and, most importantly these days, safe holiday season. I'll see everyone on January 3, 2022, 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.

The workers were home all snug on their thrones;
While visions of deadlines danced on their iPhones;
And I at my desk, alone to deal with the crap,
For the one who's in charge gets no holiday nap.

When out in the lot there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from my desk to see what was the matter;
Away to the door I flew in a hurried jolt,
Tore open the shutters and threw open the bolt.

The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow,
Gave a lustre of midday to objects below,
When what to my wondering eyes did acquaint,
A process server holding a seven-count complaint.

Count One alleged that we had discriminated,
On the basis of race by one irritated;
A denied promotion, gone to someone who's white,
Said the lawsuit I read in the glow of the night.

Count Two, racial harassment, words she had o'erheard,
Does she know the ruckus she's about to have stirred?
Oh, how she had pulled that nasty, evil trigger.
I'd never heard supervisors rhyme something with bigger.

Count Three, it's not just racism she alleged,
Also sexism, to which management pledged.
The boys, she said, we paid so much more than the girls
Yet they do the same work as each workday unfurls.

Count Four, uh oh, sexual harassment;
It's true her manager hoped to be her gent.
But the touching and groping, alleged quid pro quo,
Never did anyone coerce being her beau.

Count Five targeted our vaccine direction.
We denied her ask for a moral exemption.
"Conspiracy," she yelled. "You're part of the elite."
You'll care when Omicron our employees deplete.

Count Six, firing a COVID rule breaker.
Masks she refused, even those made of paper.
Social distancing of six feet or more,
Enforcement can be such an insufferable chore.

Count Seven, wage and hour class action, oh crap!
Did we fall into an FLSA lawsuit trap?
Mis-classifications, non-exempt for exempt,
And off-the-clock work too, my butt cheeks were then clenched.

Not just a lawsuit was waiting, I see.

An election petition from the NLRB.

Ungrateful employees want more pay and respect.

Should I have treated them better, I reflect?

I spoke not a single word, went back to my desk,
And yelled, with none to hear, "Do I ever get to rest?!"
I emailed our lawyer, thru my phone I exclaimed,
"How much trouble are we in? To me please explain!"

He sprang to his phone, gave to me this rejoinder.
"A lot; I'll need a $20,000 retainer."
But I also heard him proclaim, so as not to slight—
"Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night!"

Announcing The Worst Employer of 2021 🏆

The ballots have been cast. The votes have been tabulated. The results have been certified. It's now my honor to announce the Worst Employer of 2021.

Coronavirus Update 12-21-2021: Employers are starting to get real about vaccinated workforces

Last week marked the one-year anniversary of the Covid-19 vaccine being administered in the United States. Yet, here are some headlines from last week:

• U.S. employers lean toward required COVID-19 vaccinations
• Google is threatening to fire unvaccinated employees
• Kroger to end some Covid-19 benefits for unvaccinated workers
• From mandates to masks, how some big companies are adjusting to Omicron

While we wait for the Biden administration's vaccine mandates to work their way through the courts (this past weekend's 6th Circuit pronouncement notwithstanding), employers are taking matters into their own hands. Fueled by the exponential surge in Delta-related Covid cases, and the real and palpable threat of a more contagious Omicron variant looming and starting to wreak havoc, many employers have simply run out of patience with unvaccinated employees.

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.