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A Potential Childcare Disruption for Rehired Employees

Client Alert
May 14, 2020

As businesses reopen, employers with fewer than 500 employees need to brush up on the FFCRA Paid Leave rules, including a potential disruption to your return to operations. 

Under the FFCRA, employees may be eligible for up to 80 hours of Emergency Paid Sick Leave, and up to 12 weeks of paid Emergency Childcare Leave. The eligibility and use of Childcare Leave have presented the most questions. Check out Bryan Meek’s article about summer vacations. 

Under the FFCRA and the Department of Labor guidance, employees would be eligible for Childcare Leave only if the employer had them on its payroll for at least 30 calendar days immediately prior to the day leave would begin. 

Many of the reinstated employees have been on unemployment, rather than the employer’s payroll for the past month or so.  

Does this mean the rehired employees are not eligible for Childcare Leave until they work for at least a month? Not necessarily. 

Why? Under the CARES Act, Congress added a loophole for rehired employees. If an employee was laid off on or after March 1, 2020 and is then rehired, the employee is immediately eligible for Childcare Leave if the employee worked 30 of the last 60 calendar days prior to layoff. 

What is the concern? An employee can return to work as part of a rehire program for one day, and then go on 12 weeks of a combination of Emergency Sick Leave and Emergency Childcare Leave paid at a 2/3 rate up to $200 per day. 

What should employers do? The Childcare Leave process is designed to be interactive. Engage in an interactive process with your employees about their scheduling and childcare needs. You can remind employees that the childcare disruptions will likely extend into the next school year, so it’s wise to conserve the leave for when it is absolutely necessary. 

For additional questions, please contact Jeffrey Miller 216.658.2323 or any member of the Labor + Employment Team of BMD.  

child care;FFCRAcovid-19coronavirusCARES Actchildcare leaveDOL
Client Alert

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June 14, 2021On January 1, 2021, the federal government issued stimulus payments (also known as Economic Impact Payments) to American citizens – on paper. However, many of the stimulus payments were not received until several months later. Sometimes the stimulus payments did not arrive until after an individual died.Client Alert

The Masks Are Back: New OSHA Regulations for Healthcare Employers

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New OSHA Guidance for Workplaces Not Covered by the Healthcare Emergency Temporary Standard

June 11, 2021On June 10, 2021, OSHA issued an Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS) for occupational exposure to COVID-19, but it applies only to healthcare and healthcare support service workers. For a detailed summary of the ETS applicable to the healthcare industry, please visit https://youtu.be/vPyXmKwOzsk. All employers not subject to the ETS should review OSHA’s contemporaneously released, updated Guidance on Mitigating and Preventing the Spread of COVID-19 in the Workplace. The new Guidance essentially leaves intact OSHA’s earlier guidance, but only for unvaccinated and otherwise at-risk workers (“at-risk” meaning vaccinated or unvaccinated workers with immunocompromising conditions). For fully vaccinated workers, OSHA defers to CDC Guidance for Fully Vaccinated People, which advises that most fully vaccinated people can resume activities without wearing masks or physically distancing, except where required by federal, state, or local laws or individual business policies.Client Alert

Employer Liability for COVID-19 Vaccine Side Effects

June 9, 2021As employers encourage or require employees to obtain a COVID-19 vaccine, they should be aware of OSHA recording obligations and potential workers’ compensation liability. Though OSHA has yet to revise its COVID-19 guidance in response to the latest CDC recommendations, OSHA has revised its position regarding the recording of injury or illness resulting from the vaccine. Until now, OSHA required an employer to record an adverse reaction when the vaccine was required for employees and the injury or illness otherwise met the recording criteria (work-related, a new case, and meets one or more of the general recording criteria). OSHA has reversed course and announced that it will not require recording adverse reactions until at least May 2022, irrespective of whether the employer requires the vaccine as a condition of employment. In its revised COVID-19 FAQs, OSHA states:Client Alert

The New Rule 1.510 - Radical Change for Summary Judgement Procedure in Florida

June 8, 2021In civil litigation, where both sides participate actively, trial is usually required at the end of a long, expensive case to determine a winner and a loser. In federal and most state courts, however, there are a few procedural shortcuts by which parties can seek to prevail in advance of trial, saving time, money and annoyance. The most common of these is the “motion for summary judgment”: a request to the court by one side for judgment before trial, generally on the basis that the evidence available reflects that a win for that party is legally inevitable and thus required. Effective May 1, 2021, summary judgment procedure in Florida has radically changed.
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