By James Prappas As we head toward year-end and look forward to 2022, there are planning tips for businesses and individuals to consider in order to retain current U.S. immigration benefits and the ability to travel internationally and return to the U.S. The ability to travel internationally and return to the U.S. is a fluid […]
Top Five Year-End Immigration Planning Tips
Spate of Recent Court Activity Puts President Biden’s Vaccine Mandates in Question, Presenting Dilemmas for Employers
By Andrea Johnson and Dennis Duffy Recent court rulings have thrown further doubt into the various federal vaccine mandates, raising questions for employers as to the application of same. On, November 30, 2021, a district court in the Sixth Circuit entered a stay of the mandate affecting federal contractors, linked here. The decision affects contractors […]
OSHA Ordered to “Take No Steps to Implement or Enforce the Mandate”
OSHA Ordered to “Take No Steps to Implement or Enforce the Mandate.“1 Fifth Circuit Stay of Vaccine-Mandate ETS Continues through Court’s Temporary Injunction Issued 11/12/2021. OSHA Rule Denigrated as “One-Size-Fits-All Sledgehammer.”2 By Andrea Johnson On Friday, November 12, 2021, the Fifth Circuit entered its temporary injunction against the “Mandate” also referred to as the “emergency […]
A New World: 5th Circuit Stays OSHA COVID-Vaccination Mandate ETS, Affecting Employers with 100-plus Employees – Court Finds “Grave Statutory and Constitutional Issues with the Mandate.”
BY ANDREA JOHNSON Scarcely two days after OSHA had issued its emergency rule or “ETS” mandating COVID vaccinations in the workplace, the Fifth Circuit on November 6, 2021, granted an emergency stay of the entire rule – stopping in its tracks the federal government (OSHA), from proceeding with a very lengthy rule and, some contended, a […]
OSHA Issues Emergency Temporary Standard for Private Employers with 100-Plus Employees – New Deadline: January 4, 2022
BY ANDREA JOHNSON Today, November 4, 2021, the Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (“OSHA”) issued several rules related to vaccine mandates. Critical to private employers with 100 or more employees, the OSHA rule or “ETS” requires, in general, the vaccination of employees or weekly testing of unvaccinated workers, beginning by January 4, […]
Expected Challenges Facing OSHA’s COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate For Large Employers
By: Colin Durham As part of his plan to combat the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, President Biden previously announced that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (“OSHA”) would implement an emergency temporary standard (“ETS”) requiring employers with 100 or more employees to mandate that all their employees either be fully vaccinated or produce a negative COVID-19 […]
Handling Employee Religious Objections to Mandatory Vaccine Policies
By Alex Beverly1 Mandatory Employee Vaccination Rules Present Challenges when Considering Religious Exceptions to the Rule. As we reported earlier (see the KRCL blog post, here), the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (“OSHA”) is in the process of developing an “emergency” temporary standard, requiring employers with more than 100 employees to mandate that their employees […]
Fifth Circuit Declares Day-Rate Workers, even Those Earning over $200K/Year, Not Exempt—Unless the Employer Also Pays a Weekly Guaranteed Amount
By: Dennis P. Duffy1 In an en banc decision that the dissent predicted will wreck needless and excessive suffering to the “oyl biddness,” the Fifth Circuit held that a day rate—even for employees earning over $200k a year—does not meet the salary basis test for exempt status under the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”), unless the […]
Employment Non-Compete Agreements: Are They Still Permitted in Light of President Biden’s Executive Order on Promoting Competition in the American Economy?
Yes, for the time being; there are no immediate changes to the law governing employment non-compete agreements. The Executive Order On July 9, 2021, The White House issued a 20-page, 72-initiative Executive Order, signed by President Biden. The overarching purpose of the Order is to create an “open and competitive economy” that allows businesses to […]
As Pandemic Eases, New DOL, OSHA, and TWC Rules Inform Both Employees and Employers
New DOL, OSHA, and TWC Rules Inform Both Employees and Employers, as Pandemic Eases[1] A. New Standard Issued by DOL Aimed at Protecting At-Risk Workers in Healthcare On June 10, 2021, the Department of Labor (“DOL”) issued a highly anticipated emergency temporary standard (“ETS”) setting workplace safety parameters for employers in the healthcare sector during […]