Welcome to Part 2 of the 2021 Year-End Edition of the State Law Round-Up, covering states in the second half of the alphabet. Part 1, covering the first part of the alphabet, can be found here. Maine: Maine’s “ban-the-box” law, HP 845, went into effect October 18, 2021. The law prohibits private employers from requesting … Continue Reading
Currently pending before the Arizona legislature, Senate Bill 1648 would prohibit discrimination in the workplace (and elsewhere) against individuals who have not received or who refuse to receive a COVID-19 vaccine. As proposed, the bill would prohibit any employer from requiring a person to receive or disclose whether they have received a COVID-19 vaccine as … Continue Reading
As we blogged about here, the CDC announced on May 13, 2021 that fully vaccinated individuals no longer need to wear a mask or practice social distancing except in certain circumstances, including when state or local orders still require compliance with these COVID-19 mitigation measures. As a result, a number of state and local health … Continue Reading
State legislatures have been busy in 2021 passing new employment-related laws. Here we look at some of the highlights of new laws in Connecticut, Illinois, Ohio, New York, Pennsylvania, and Washington, D.C. Connecticut is the latest state to prohibit discrimination based upon traits historically associated with race, including hair texture, protective hairstyles such as wigs … Continue Reading
As part of Squire Patton Boggs’ ongoing focus on COVID-19 pandemic challenges and opportunities, on November 5, 2020 at 2:00 p.m. Eastern, William J. Kishman and Laura Lawless of the firms’ Labor & Employment Practice Group will host an hour-long discussion aimed at healthcare employers that will focus on some of the key issues that are front … Continue Reading
In June 2020, we added a post to Employment Law Worldview addressing the complicated situation employers are in when employees express – sometime respectfully, sometimes not – different, and indeed, opposite views on COVID-19 issues (e.g., legitimate public health emergency versus hoax or “plandemic”), racial justice (“Black Lives Matter” versus “All Lives Matter”), and politics … Continue Reading
With Election Day just a few weeks away, it’s an appropriate time to refresh our understanding of state voting leave laws and the obligations imposed on private sector employers by those laws. Although absentee voting by mail and universal mail voting have become more common since the last presidential election in 2016, many voters undoubtedly … Continue Reading
On Friday, May 15, 2020, Arizona’s “Stay Home, Stay Healthy, Stay Connected” order will expire. At that time, only a handful of states (Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts, and New Jersey) will still be under broad stay-at-home restrictions, but even those remaining states will begin the phased reopening process between May 15 and 30. As employers begin … Continue Reading
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) public health emergency has changed life as we know it, including by severely disrupting business on a nationwide scale. In some cases, employers have been forced to temporarily close their doors and cease operations, while others have had to make radical changes to the workplace in order to maintain operations. … Continue Reading
By the end of the April, many Ohio employers with state funded workers’ compensation coverage will receive a dividend from the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation (BWC). This dividend of up to $1.6 billion was approved by the BWC Board in response to a request from Governor Mike DeWine to state agencies to take action … Continue Reading
All individuals in Ohio have been ordered to stay home except as necessary to engage in essential activities, and all non-essential businesses and operations have been ordered to cease, beginning at 11:59 p.m. Monday, March 23, 2020, under the Ohio Department of Health Director’s Stay at Home Order issued on March 22, 2020. The Stay at Home … Continue Reading
On Sunday, March 22, 2020, Dr. Amy Acton, Director of the Ohio Department of Health, declared all workers in non-essential businesses across the state of Ohio are required to stay at home starting Monday, March 23 at 11:59 PM in order to combat the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. This Order shall remain in effect until 11:59 … Continue Reading
Ohio, like all other states, is facing an unprecedented rise in unemployment claims as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. In Ohio, 111,055 unemployment claims were filed between March 15-18, 2020. At the same point just one week ago, there were under 4,000 claims. These numbers are expected to increase in the coming days and … Continue Reading
