The EEOC released updated technical guidance on COVID and Long COVID, essentially putting to a close to the many times this guidance has been updated.
While there are many tweaks to the guidance, most of the changes reflect the end of the public health emergency. The EEOC has noted that
It’s not over.
We all knew that, though some of us — including me — were hoping for a least a bit of a respite during the spring and summer months.
No such luck. Indeed, after two years of avoiding the illness, we recently had a “visit” of COVID to our house; thankfully, the one
Obviously, the big news of last week was that a federal court struck down the mask mandate for public transportation.
But from a bigger employment law perspective, there may be other rules with a shelf life too. The road we are travelling on is not in a straight line. The big question for now is
This isn’t the end of the pandemic. But it’s starting to feel a lot closer than it has for a while.
First off, the omicron wave has crested in Connecticut. There may still be more variants to worry about but at least for now (a few weeks? months?), cases are declining significantly in Connecticut —
There’s going to be lots of virtual ink spilled about the politics of the Supreme Court’s decision today and the ultimate ramifications of the OSHA Emergency Temporary Standard. In case you hadn’t heard, the Supreme Court this afternoon decided to grant a stay of the OSHA rule, meaning it is on hold and employers now
Late Friday night, the Sixth Circuit lifted the nationwide stay on the OSHA so-called “vax-or-text” rule.
For employers, the “why” the stay was lifted is less important than the “here’s what it means”.
And the short answer to that is that implementation of the rule will begin immediately (again). Of course, there’s still an appeal
Put aside, for the moment, fears of the omicron variant. We just don’t know enough about it even though Connecticut had its first case announced this weekend.
And put aside, for the moment, the new mandate in New York City that is requiring all employers to require proof of vaccination for employees.
Rather, I
It’s been 22 months since my first post on the COVID-19 pandemic. Looking back on that first post way back on January 22, 2020, is more than a little strange. It was couched with a lot of “it’s still too early to know” language like this:
“While it seems too early to implement any
Last week, I deleted the Twitter app off my iPhone as a bit of an experiment. I’ve done this a few times before — but the start of the pandemic back in early 2020 had me going full on Twitter since then. After all, if it’s important, it’s on Twitter, right?
Well, not exactly. In fact, when I was sick for a few days, I kept turning to Twitter and finding…not much that merited the visit to the app — just boredom. (Never fear though, I can still access it on my computer browser.) Nevertheless, I wondered how much I’d miss if I just took it of my phone.
The first real answer came on Friday when news came of the Fifth Circuit’s beatdown decision to stay enforcement of the OSHA vax or test Emergency Temporary Standard. Turns out you can hear about it the same time as others even without being on Twitter.
But what happened next was interesting for me — nothing. Without being on Twitter, I missed the immediate reactions, overreactions, snark, and, sure, some actual insights.
And that’s ok.
We are entering a time during this pandemic when the changes are happening more incrementally and slowly. Perhaps we are headed for a modest 5th wave here, for example. That might require employers to adjust on the fly again. But speed isn’t everything right now.
Thus, with the luxury of a few more days to ponder and think, where are we now on the OSHA rule?
Continue Reading Court Stays OSHA ETS, But We Know All Too Well It’s Not the Last Word
Being sick over the last week brought me a lot of unexpected “gifts”. Sure, there were the forced afternoon naps (oh, who’s kidding, even a morning nap too) . The watching of “The Price is Right” at least once (or was it twice?). The early start of a post-pandemic diet.
But also the “gift” of