To help stop the spread of coronavirus, Governor Lamont issued a sweeping Executive Order that affects all businesses and non-profits in the state. The Executive Order goes into effect Monday, March 23, 2020, at 8:00 p.m., leaving businesses with little time to prepare. Here’s what you need to know. All businesses and non-profits, whether essential or not, are […]
Governor Lamont just announced a Stay Safe/Stay at Home policy for the state of Connecticut. He is ordering that non-essential services remain closed for now. Exemptions will be made for major construction projects already underway as well as for major manufacturers, especially in the defense industry. Restaurants can remain open for takeout. Services such as auto repair and hardware […]
The Families First Coronavirus Response Act is now law. With millions of Americans forced out of the workplace, the legislation provides some relief for employees through the form of expanded Family and Medical Leave Act (“FMLA”) and paid sick leave. President Trump signed the bill last night. The Department of Labor announced that the legislation will go […]
Many employers in Connecticut have significantly reduced operations or have shut down entirely at this point. Affected employees, and even independent contractors, may now be eligible for Unemployment benefits. According to Governor Lamont, 10,000 people applied for Unemployment on March 16, 2020, alone. This level of claims activity in such a short period of time appears to be […]
On Monday, March 16, the House proposed new legislation that would make significant changes to the emergency legislation proposed only a few days ago. Again, this is only a first step in the legislative process, but demonstrates the extreme challenges facing employees as the landscape continues to shift on a daily, sometimes, hourly basis. Legislators […]
We received many questions from clients over the weekend about the emergency bill addressing FMLA and paid sick leave passed by the House on Saturday, March 14. While the Senate has not yet taken up the measure, emergency measures in some form are expected to pass the Senate later this week and employers should be […]
The novel coronavirus has reached Connecticut. Employers are facing decisions many have never faced before, such as implementing widespread telecommuting measures or even temporarily shutting down business. There are countless employment law questions that arise from this fluid public health emergency. Here are a few issues to keep in mind as you decide how to […]
Starting May 1, 2020, all employers will be required to use a new I-9 Form, the form used to verify an employee’s eligibility to work in the United States. You must use the form with edition date 10/21/2019. The date appears in the lower left-hand corner of the form. Employers may switch to the new form immediately, […]
In a rare bi-partisan move, just before the Christmas break Congress passed a spending bill for 2020 that included a repeal of the so-called Cadillac tax. The tax, which was an excise tax on costly health plans, was due to go into effect on January 1, 2022, after a number of delays as to its […]
The federal Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) requires that employees receive overtime calculated at one-and-a-half times the “regular rate” of pay for hours over 40 in a workweek unless the employees are “exempt” from overtime. A new rule, slated to go into effect on January 15, 2020, makes it easier to determine the regular rate of […]
