You may have noticed that this blog has been a little quiet of late. Like a lot of people, I’m pretty sure that after four months of non-stop pandemic-related employment law work, I had reached a breaking point.
And so I took vacation last week. Of course, like a lot of you, we didn’t go
We made it halfway through 2020.
I know it FEELS as if it should be December, but just think how long March was!
A lot has changed since the start of the pandemic. But over the last few weeks, I’ve been hearing from employers wondering where things stand right now. What’s changed? What still
A few weeks ago, I did an inital post about how the new OSHA guidance on masks only served to complicate efforts for employers to comply with any such rules.
This week, my colleague Alfredo Fernandez (with only a little help from me — byline notwithstanding) posted a more thorough post on the ins and
Is the pandemic over yet?
Obviously, the answer is no. While Connecticut’s numbers have diminished significantly, other states are continuing to spike.
Thus, yesterday, Governor Lamont issued new Executive Order No. 7BBB mandating that visitors from certain states with high numbers of cases to self-quarantine. My colleague Jarad Lucan and I have a full update
Can I test my employees for COVID-19?
Over the course of the last few months, it feels like the answer to that question has been Yes, No, and It Depends. And maybe all three at the same time.
In fact, if you look at my post from April 2020, you’ll see the differences in the
What do you think of masks?
Strangely, it seems a loaded question of late. How masks became a political hot potato is something that historians will debate.
Yesterday, Connecticut tried out a new slogan encouraging common-sense use of masks. The new slogan? “If you have to ask, wear a mask”.
But that’s not the full
Last week, I had the opportunity to listen in on an informative CLE program sponsored by the Practicing Law Institute on video mediation. I’ve already participated in several of these mediations and have started incorporating them into the mediations that I do for other attorneys.
The term “video mediation” is still a work in progress.
The last time that I spoke with Plaintiff’s attorney Nina Pirrotti, the pandemic was just beginning and we were just getting used to our home offices. Now, 10 weeks later, the abnormal has become normal. My business attire has gotten a bit more casual and my office a bit more organized.
But it seemed a
Over the weekend, Governor Ned Lamont issued the latest batch of rules for businesses that can reopen on June 17th. You can find them all here.
The rules are, in many ways, a natural extension of the rules for essential and Phase One businesses.
For example, businesses that open will do so at the state’s
As employers start to return employees to the physical workplace, new issues keep arising daily. Here’s a common scenario:
Employee X has been on furlough since late March and collecting more on unemployment than if he had been employed, thanks to the extra $600 weekly payment.
Employer now asks Employee to return to work. Although