Coronavirus Update 3-12-2021: What does the American Rescue Plan mean for employers?

Yesterday, President Biden signed the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, aka the $1.9 trillion Covid relief bill. It's the most significant economic relief bill we've seen in decades. Here are four key provisions to which employers should be paying attention.

Coronavirus Update 3-11-2021: Happy 1st Birthday COVID-19 Pandemic

It's been exactly one year since the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic. Tomorrow will mark the one-year anniversary of when I started working from home. (It will also mark another significant milestone, but more on that on Monday.) Wednesday is one year from the date I temporarily rebranded the Ohio Employer Law Blog as the Coronavirus Law Blog. I look forward to ending that branding soon.

Coronavirus Update 3-10-2021: John Oliver on unemployment

One of the lasting lessons of the COVID-19 pandemic is that our state unemployment systems are old and broken, and desperately need to be modernized and fixed. While the $1.9 trillion Covid relief package that President Biden is expected to imminently sign provides for a $300 federal unemployment bonus for a few months, that is the tiniest of bandaids on this very large problem. 

Thankfully, we have John Oliver to offer his commentary on this important issue.

Coronavirus Update 3-9-2021: CDC says fully vaccinated people can safely visit fully vaccinated Grandma (but still have to keep wearing masks at work)

Yesterday, the CDC issued its long-awaited guidance on how fully vaccinated people can safely visit others.

Here's who and how the CDC says can fully vaccinated people can safely visit:

• Other fully vaccinated people indoors without wearing masks or staying 6 feet apart; and
• Unvaccinated people from one other household indoors without wearing masks or staying 6 feet apart if everyone in the other household is at low risk for severe disease.

Coronavirus Update 3-8-2021: Local judge in hot water over “China Virus” comments

Rule number one of this blog has always been, "Don't criticize judges whom you might appear in front of." Rules, however, are made to be broken, and some issues are just too important to ignore.

Judge John O’Donnell of the Lake County Court of Common Pleas is in hot water over comments he made in this month's edition of his county bar association's newsletter. In an article he wrote about managing his courtroom during the pandemic, he called COVID-19 the "China Virus" three separate times.

This is simply not acceptable. I'm appalled, and you should be, too.

Coronavirus Update 3-4-2021: Please pay your employees for time off related to the Covid vaccine

Earlier this week, the House passed an extension of the FFCRA as part of its $1.9 trillion Covid stimulus bill. (I'll cover its details in a future post, but if you're curious now, head over to Jeff Nowak's FMLA Insights.) 

One of the new measures in this proposed extension is the inclusion of leave taken by an employee to obtain a COVID-19 vaccine or recover from any injury, disability, illness, or condition related to the vaccine.

Coronavirus Update 3-3-2021: As states lift mask mandates, remember that the law is always a floor and not a ceiling

I just announced Texas is OPEN 100%.

EVERYTHING.

I also ended the statewide mask mandate.

— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) March 2, 2021

With that announcement, Texas joins Mississippi (whose governor made the same announcement yesterday) and many of the other usual suspects with no rules mandating that people wear masks or other facial covering in public or at work.

I say, "BOOOOOOO!!!!" This is the worst idea at the worst possible time. Yes, cases are falling and vaccination rates are rising. But the prevalence of the more contagious Covid variants is also rising, and we are still months or longer away from herd immunity. Now is the time to double-down on safety, not shirk our responsibility to ourselves, our families, friends, coworkers, and others. As my friend Suzanne Lucas eloquently stated in discussing this same issue, "Moral obligations don't go away."

The 5th nominee for the “Worst Employer of 2021” is … the safety ignorer

Nine days before Christmas, one of my neighbors posted the following on my community's Facebook page.

Any prayer warriors on here, please keep the roofer who just fell off one of the townhouses in your prayers. It doesn't look like he's moving. So so sad 😢.

Courtesy of OSHA, we now know exactly what happened. In addition to being completely tragic, it was also 100 percent avoidable. A local roofing company sent a 14-year-old boy up on a three-story roof with absolutely no fall protection equipment and then tried to cover it up after he fell. 

Coronavirus Update 3-1-2021: If “doing the right thing” doesn’t motivate you to take COVID-19 safety seriously, then consider the impact on your business if you don’t

The sign on the door of Platform Beer's Columbus, Ohio, taproom reads: "The entire Platform Columbus crew has quit. The taproom is closed until further notice. Thank you!"

The employees and their former(?) employer are battling it out on Twitter.

pic.twitter.com/PA2WzqVafQ

— Malibu StⒶsi 🏴 (@MalibuStasi) February 27, 2021

Coronavirus Update 2-26-2021: Adaptability

Adaptability to change is itself a hallmark of successful education.

– Peter Hilton

2020 – 2021 has been a different school year for everyone. My kids are fortunate in that their school, Lake Ridge Academy, has been open for full-time, in-person instruction for the entire school year. There have, however, been key changes in the name of safety. For example, the school made the decision not to participate in interscholastic sports this year. My son was able to participate on the Middle School robotics team, with the competition submitted remotely. My daughter had the benefit of participating in the Upper School's fall play, which was staged outside in the warm autumn weather. 

The Upper School musical, usually presented on stage in late February, presented a different set of challenges. An outdoor performance is simply not an option in the harsh winter climate of Northeast Ohio. An indoor live performance is also not an option because it simply cannot be executed safely within COVID-19's limitations. 

So what did the school do? It adapted. Instead of performing a live, in-person musical, it spent the past several months filming its first-ever movie musical, which it will stream March 5, 6, and 7. And my daughter, Norah, has the lead role. 

The 4th nominee for the “Worst Employer of 2021” is … the socially distant mass discharger

Repeat after me. Thou shalt only fire people in person, and never by phone call, email, or text message. If, because of COVID-19, you absolutely must fire someone by Zoom, at least have the decency to turn on your camera and mic.

Apparently, the Washington Football Team did not receive this memo. It just mass fired its entire staff of cheerleaders via Zoom, with the camera and mic turned off.

Coronavirus Update 2-24-2021: How much does it cost an employer for not following COVID-19 safety rules?

OSHA has cited a Missouri auto parts manufacturer for failing to implement and enforce coronavirus protections, which ultimately lead to an employee's death. The details, from OSHA's news release.

Two machine operators … who jointly operated a press tested positive for the coronavirus just two days apart, in late August 2020. The two workers typically labored for hours at a time less than two feet apart; neither wore a protective facial mask consistently. Ten days later, two more workers operating similar presses together tested positive. On Sept. 19, 2020, one of the press operators fell victim to the virus and died.

The total penalty? $15,604. For someone who died during a global pandemic because of his employer's irresponsibility

Coronavirus Update 2-23-2021: John Oliver tackles Covid and other safety issues in the meat packing industry

Last year I nominated Tyson Foods for 2020's Worst Employer because some of its managers started a cash buy-in betting pool on which of its employees would fall ill with COVID-19.

This past weekend, John Oliver did a scathing indictment of Tyson Foods and others for their health and safety record during the pandemic and otherwise.

If doing the right thing by your employees isn't enough for you to take health and safety seriously during the ongoing pandemic and beyond, and if staying off my Worst Employer list also isn't enough, then maybe staying off of John Oliver's show will push you in that direction.

Coronavirus Update 2-22-2021: Get ready for the glut of Covid whistleblower tag-along claims

The headline reads, "Ex-Manager Sues Ample Hills in Lawsuit Alleging Harassment and Unsafe COVID-19 Protocols" (emphasis mine).

Here's the lede:

Bryce Mottram, a former general manager at one of quirky ice cream purveyor Ample Hills' scoop shops, has filed a lawsuit in New York Eastern District Court alleging that he was fired from the company in retaliation for speaking up about instances of sexual harassment and unsafe COVID-19 workplace protocols at the company.

I firmly believe that for the next year-plus, just about every employment-related lawsuit will contain a COVID-19 whistleblower tag-along claim. 

The number one reason not to have a labor union

You would think that an employee who purposely defecates on the workplace floor in an act of revenge against his boss and then brags about it is worthy of termination. And you'd be correct 100 percent of the time … unless that employee is a member of a labor union. An arbitration board cited the employee's lengthy, faithful service record to the company and other mitigating circumstances in reinstating him. 

How do you define success?

This week I had the pleasure of guesting on Pat Perry's Success Wave podcast. During our half-hour-plus conversation, Pat and I discussed a variety of topics, including lawyering in the time of COVID-19 and the key issues I see employers facing in 2021. We also talked about some general business questions, such as this one: How do I define "success." Here's my answer.

You can listen to the full episode on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

Pop culture as a means to break down inherent biases and prejudiced divides

Think about it. If you want to know where the American public is, look at the money being spent on advertising. Did you ever five years ago think every second or third ad out of five or six you turn on would be biracial couples. [Applause] No, I'm not being facetious. The reason I'm so hopeful is this new generation. They're not like us. They're thinking differently. They're more open. And we have to take advantage of it.

Those were the words of President Biden last night, speaking about race relations during his CNN Town Hall. 

He's 100 percent correct. 

Coronavirus Update 2-16-2021: Are you monitoring your remote employees?

According to this article at Wirecutter.com, employers are using the COVID-19 pandemic as a justification to enhance their monitoring of employees' activities, specifically remote employees.

As COVID-19's spread has prompted an expansion of work-from-home policies across various industries, the use of more-pervasive monitoring software, also known as "tattleware" or "bossware," has increased. The New York Times demonstrated how this software works, but the idea is simple: Once the software is installed, an employer has deeper access and even live monitoring tools for everything you do on your computer, including which applications you open, what websites you visit, and how much time you spend doing different activities. Employers can use this data to track your attendance or periodically snap screenshots of your screen. Some software can even monitor the music you listen to, your facial expressions, your tone of voice, or your writing tone throughout the day. To what purpose depends on the type of work you do—and whom you do it for.

According to Brian Kropp, VP of Research for Gartner, the number of companies that use this "tattleware" has increased from 10 percent pre-COVID to 30 percent currently. It's an epidemic all on its own.

Coronavirus Update 2-15-2021: CDC updates quarantine guidelines for vaccinated individuals

Must individuals who are fully vaccinated (i.e., have received both vaccine doses) against COVID-19 quarantine if they have been in close contact with someone who has a confirmed case of the virus?

According to guidance recently updated by the CDC, the answer is no (assuming certain criteria are met).

Coronavirus Update 2-12-2021: Doctor wrongly fired for doing the right thing with expiring COVID vaccine dose

"Ten doses of the Covid-19 vaccine would expire within hours, so a Houston doctor gave it to people with medical conditions, including his wife." So reads the lede in this New York Times story. 

What happened next? He was fired.