While Washington state reopened on June 30 with the new Washington Ready plan, under which most industries have returned to normal capacity and operations, this reopening has loosened, but not eliminated, COVID-19 safety and masking requirements for employees and customers.
As part of the reopening plan, the governor issued Updated
The Oregon legislature has temporarily amended Oregon’s Equal Pay Act to allow employers latitude to both encourage COVID-19 vaccinations and to attract new employees as the state emerges from COVID-19 business restrictions. Under the revised statute, when evaluating whether employees who perform work of comparable character are paid equitably, a comparison of employee compensation
The state and some local COVID-19 supplemental paid sick leave requirements continue through the summer. And the City of Los Angeles’ mayor issued a public order mandating additional paid leave.
Under the order, employees who work within the City of Los Angeles and have been employed by their employer for 60 days are entitled
On May 18, 2021, Santa Clara County ordered businesses to track employee’s COVID-19 vaccination status. This Order departed largely from the prior County Orders as well as the California Blueprint for a Safer Economy. However, in conjunction with the California Department of Industrial Relations, Division of Occupational Safety and Health (commonly known as Cal/OSHA),
Under Cal/OSHA’s COVID-19 Emergency Temporary Standards (ETS), employers are mandated to have a written COVID-19 Prevention Program. In light of the recent revisions to the ETS, Cal/OSHA has released an updated model prevention program. The updated program includes directives for vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals such as face-covering requirements. The new model program also
The simple answer is Cal/OSHA has not clarified if the 30-year retention rule is triggered by requirements of the COVID-19 Emergency Temporary Standards (ETS).
Pursuant to Cal/OSHA’s amended ETS employers are required to document the vaccination status of their employees if the employer intends to allow vaccinated employees to work without a face covering or
The Baltimore City Council recently passed an ordinance, in a vote of 13-2, barring the use of facial recognition technology by city residents, businesses, and most of the city government (excluding the city police department) until December 2022. Council Bill 21-0001 prohibits persons from “obtaining, retaining, accessing, or using certain face surveillance technology or any
While the past week brought many changes around California for COVID-19 requirements, both the state statute and several local supplemental paid sick leave ordinances persist.
The statewide COVID-19 Supplemental Paid Sick Leave (“SPSL”) law remains in effect until September 30, 2021.
As a reminder, under the state SPSL, employees are entitled to leave for the
The last few weeks have been quite tense for California employers as they watched the drama unfold with the state’s Department of Industrial Relations’ Division of Occupational Safety and Health (“Cal/OSHA”) over amendments to the standing COVID-19 Emergency Temporary Standards (“ETS”)
In case you missed it: a few weeks ago, Cal/OSHA delayed a vote on
In an emergency meeting on June 9th, the Cal/OSHA Standards Board reversed itself and voted to withdraw the amended COVID-19 Emergency Temporary Standards (ETS) it had just approved on June 3rd. As such, employers will remain governed by the ETS that was passed in November 2020.
The emergency meeting was held so