2022 Pandemic Safety and Compliance: Updates and Best Practices for Livery Companies

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Rick Szilagyi: Excellent Thank you good afternoon everyone, thank you for.

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Rick Szilagyi: Taking a seat and joining us today, my name is rick slogging i’m the executive director for the New England livery association, some time ago we were fortunate enough to.

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Rick Szilagyi: benefit from a grant from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts which gives us the ability to contract with.

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Rick Szilagyi: Certain providers of services and MPs, is one that we’re extremely proud to be working with an MP provides high level of HR services to providers in many industries, including our industry.

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Rick Szilagyi: Today, presenting is Paul Cornelis Paul is had over a decade of experience in HR consulting working with businesses of all sizes and industries is to.

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Rick Szilagyi: Certified HR professionals at MPs as clients with compliance training and full circle HR guidance and support and today fall will be concentrating on.

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Rick Szilagyi: helping us process and how to think about challenges that we’re facing relative to the pandemic within our ground transportation companies well, thank you.

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Paul Carelis: Thank you so much right great to talk to you again and excited to present on this topic.

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Paul Carelis: yeah so really.

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Paul Carelis: challenging times it’s been.

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Paul Carelis: Whether pre pandemic or during the pandemic or hopefully as we start to exit the pandemic here just numerous challenges to the industry.

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Paul Carelis: So we really wanted to focus on.

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Paul Carelis: kind of an update in terms of what’s going on with coven.

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Paul Carelis: Talk about and then kind of talk about government regulation across across all industries, both at the national and the State level, as well as at the various agencies.

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Paul Carelis: That can afflict it affect HR and employment law and try to wrap the conversation around you know which of any of those are of particular interest to livery.

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Paul Carelis: Industry and association and kind of how to navigate those and what to be on the lookout for in the year ahead as were just now kicking off 2022 so quick legal disclaimer.

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Paul Carelis: While I wish I am not an attorney so please don’t cost you anything today as legal advice, this is all coming from an HR best practices perspective, and I hope that you enjoy the content.

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Paul Carelis: Also, in case you’re watching this via recording and because so many of the rules and regulations, especially around coven 19 or are ever changing as well as guidance.

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Paul Carelis: This information is current as of February 2 2022 at two o’clock Eastern because a couple weeks ago I did a similar session to this and we were talking about vaccine mandates.

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Paul Carelis: And all the rules, and all of the hoops that businesses we’re going to have to jump through between gathering vaccination info and for those who aren’t vaccinating all the rules around testing and all that and not even an hour after we concluded the webinar.

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Paul Carelis: The Supreme Court kind of threw that all out and change the script, so it is important that this is all current as of today, to 222.

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Paul Carelis: So, again we’ll we’ll do a coven 19 update will do a legislative overview we’ll dive into some of the federal agencies that focus on employment, so that mainly being.

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Paul Carelis: OSHA, which is part of the Department of Labor also the national Labor relations Board which, if you’re not familiar with those have a lot of pull in terms of policy and employment law.

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Paul Carelis: Also quickly hit upon the the irs they’ve they’ve got their hands full over there, so if you’re you’re waiting for a tax return.

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Paul Carelis: don’t get your hopes up.

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Paul Carelis: Then we’ll also kind of look ahead and see what what we’re anticipating will be trends in employment laws.

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Paul Carelis: For those of you who are in multiple States what to be on the lookout for what some States have done of oftentimes we We live in a copycat culture so sometimes when a State introduces a protection or a regulation or a rule or a law.

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Paul Carelis: it’ll quickly be followed by other States as well, and then we’ll kind of whip out our crystal ball and see what what we anticipate seeing the rest of this year and and even looking ahead to 2023.

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Paul Carelis: If at any time you have any questions, please feel free to use the Q amp a function within within zoom here and we’ll answer what we can live if there are any questions.

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Paul Carelis: And then, otherwise if there’s something that we can’t answer alive, and that requires research will be sure to get back to you with with a response.

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Paul Carelis: So as you’ve probably heard in terms of coven 19 and that vaccine mandate that I was just talking about.

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Paul Carelis: That was referred to as an ETS or an emergency standard from OSHA that was going to require any business with.

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Paul Carelis: 50 or more employees to require their employees who were on site to either be fully vaccinated or short of that if the employer wish to have a testing option.

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Paul Carelis: Have the employees testing for coven 19 on a weekly basis, so the Supreme Court did feel that that was overreach by OSHA based on how the rule was written.

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Paul Carelis: Part of that had to do with it not being a universal rule, where it will only pertain to employers of a certain size, I think that that helped the case get kind of thrown out.

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Paul Carelis: As opposed to what we’re seeing in New York, where that rule applies to all employers and so far that has withstood legal challenge.

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Paul Carelis: it’s important to note, I know that this is outside of the industry, but.

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Paul Carelis: Similar to us in in HR services and payroll I know that the associations industry deals with people from all walks of life and deals with all different industries, especially when.

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Paul Carelis: doing business to business work and things like that the mandate is still in place for for healthcare workers so any company that receives medicare or medicaid funding.

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Paul Carelis: That that piece of the standard or that that rule from the administration in terms of having a vaccination requirement for workers in those healthcare industries that is still in place.

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Paul Carelis: But in terms of the the general private employer rule, it was struck down or put on hold, OSHA then formally pulled pulled it for consideration, rather than appealing it or you know, trying to force it through, as is they’ve taken it off the table.

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Paul Carelis: I think, depending on what we see in terms of covert rates new variants if things start to really decline in quick order.

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Paul Carelis: It may just get put to bed and not come around, but if we see see rates start to rise hospitalizations positive test rates all of that fun stuff if that starts to pick back up.

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Paul Carelis: OSHA could go through the more formal rulemaking process so rather than creating this emergency standard like they did to kind of force it through without the normal.

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Paul Carelis: open discussion process and all of that, and the ability for people to.

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Paul Carelis: to share their thoughts on on a rule, like the Department of Labor usually does.

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Paul Carelis: If they decide to put forward a rule, though they’ll probably go through the the more formal rulemaking process so keep your eyes peeled for that.

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Paul Carelis: In terms of pandemic relief for businesses, most federal programs and did on September 30 of last year, so, whether that be the federal coven sick leave.

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Paul Carelis: The employee retention tax credit Program.

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Paul Carelis: Several other pandemic related stimulus programs all came to a close on September 30.

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Paul Carelis: One important note when it comes to the er TC or those employee retention credits.

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Paul Carelis: While the program has ended in terms of eligible wages if looking back you were eligible between March 13 of 2020 through September 30 of 2021 you do still have time to file and claim those credits so for many businesses who had been using PPP and other sources of pandemic aid and.

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Paul Carelis: And funds.

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Paul Carelis: Those for for many are most those have dried up, so the rtc for those who haven’t yet taken advantage of it, and certainly the livery industry are.

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Paul Carelis: overwhelmingly eligible because of the restrictions in place, and also the effect on gross receipts the pandemic had.

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Paul Carelis: That has been served as a new source of funding for for businesses who need additional pandemic relief.

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Paul Carelis: Also coming across a lot of requests at it within businesses for reasonable accommodations.

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Paul Carelis: And a lot of those code related so for businesses who temporarily allowed people to work remotely especially but now want people back in the office setting or otherwise i’m putting people back to work, maybe working with the public what have you.

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Paul Carelis: it’s throwing a lot of employees into a tailspin and they’re.

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Paul Carelis: coming up with reasons why they can’t do that, while they why they have a disability.

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Paul Carelis: so on and so forth, and some of those are certainly legitimate not to discredit anyone’s disability claims, but there’s a lot of people who really are resisting.

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Paul Carelis: Their companies calls to either come back to the office I get back to more.

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Paul Carelis: Normal normal work routines and practices so it’s important to keep in mind as an employer as as the you start to face these things that.

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Paul Carelis: There is what’s known as the interactive process and just because someone has a commendation request doesn’t mean you have to grant that, as is really your requirement as the employer is to go through the interactive process so.

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Paul Carelis: A lot of this hinges on having having solid job descriptions, but you want to take a look at the requirements of the job if you feel that the job really can’t be done adequately remotely and it needs to be done on site and, in most cases of the business that’s your prerogative.

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Paul Carelis: And you want to take a look at the essential functions of the job and what, if any reasonable accommodations can be made, perhaps what the employee is proposing is a reasonable accommodation.

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Paul Carelis: And will allow them to perform the essential duties of their job if so that’s great you can go through those those motions and provide those accommodations and everybody’s happy.

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Paul Carelis: If you feel that that accommodation request.

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Paul Carelis: would pose an undue hardship on your business, then you can propose something else, or simply say that you haven’t been able to find a reasonable accommodation that can be made, but basically at the end of the day.

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Paul Carelis: If there isn’t a reasonable way that will allow this employee to perform the essential functions of their job, then.

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Paul Carelis: There may not be they may not be eligible to work that position and.

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Paul Carelis: That shouldn’t come down on you as the employer so.

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Paul Carelis: Sometimes it’s an extreme example, but I use it when I talked to many industries, it just happens to fall within yours.

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Paul Carelis: But you know if you have a a driver who loses their vision and is no longer licensed to drive there’s no real accommodation that you can that can be made for them to continue to drive.

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Paul Carelis: So well that’s a the most extreme case and, unfortunately, a lot of the real real life applications have a lot more great to them, rather than the black and white have that example.

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Paul Carelis: it’s just something to keep in mind that a lot of times employees can be caught off guard and things that if an employee comes in, with a doctor’s note or.

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Paul Carelis: Whatever it may be that you know you automatically have to do whatever that says, and why you have to respect the restrictions and shouldn’t make them do anything that the doctor says they shouldn’t be.

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Paul Carelis: you’re not bound to the keep them employed in the same capacity necessarily.

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Paul Carelis: Depending on what the circumstances are so always best to talk with an HR professional and or or legal counsel when when these things arise, but just keep that in mind and.

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Paul Carelis: don’t over commit yourself to anything you don’t need to.

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Paul Carelis: So a lot of questions we have our you know when we get a lot of phone calls he had an employee test positive I an employee who was a close contact of someone with covert 19 what what do I need to do.

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Paul Carelis: So here lies the most recent CDC guidance for a few different applications over the next couple of slides.

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Paul Carelis: So you know this is CDC guidance, the not necessarily the law of the land, so to speak, I we generally advise that at a bare minimum employers do follow the CDC guidance.

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Paul Carelis: If you run afoul of it, it could potentially be you know saying OSHA claim that you’re not providing a safe workplace and.

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Paul Carelis: you’re outside of the the CDC guidance so it’s generally a good idea to do the CDC guidance at a bare minimum.

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Paul Carelis: Obviously, for some businesses, especially those that are dealing closely with the public, they may want to.

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Paul Carelis: have additional measures or additional protections or be a little more cautious or conservative with their with how they handle Coburg cases or close contact within their business and that’s perfectly fine if you want to be more stringent and.

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Paul Carelis: I know people have all varied opinions on that and.

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Paul Carelis: You know we’re not here to get political or anything like that, with it, but really at the end of the day, if you’re falling see whatever the current CDC guidance is at a minimum, you should be okay, and certainly if you want to do more.

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Paul Carelis: You know our friends in the airline industry have largely.

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Paul Carelis: still stuck with vaccine mandates for their industry at least four positions that are our customer or client facing passenger facing.

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Paul Carelis: And those were often put in place before there was even talk of a federal mandate has have stayed through and by and large, those have stood up in court so.

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Paul Carelis: I use the airline industry, often in my examples for businesses who want to do more.

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Paul Carelis: Those have been those have been accepted by the courts to date but.

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Paul Carelis: With That being said, let’s go over what the current guidance is with the CDC as of late December 2021 is I when I believe they released this.

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Paul Carelis: So if you do have a Kobe positive employee employee let you know that they’ve tested positive, and this is, regardless of whether or not they’re vaccinated so same rules apply for vaccinated or non vaccinated in this case.

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Paul Carelis: That person should stay home for five days so that’s a reduction it used to be 10 days.

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Paul Carelis: If they have no symptoms if they’re asymptomatic or their symptoms are resolving after five days, so their condition is improving, they can leave their house, but they should be wearing a mask for.

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Paul Carelis: Five additional days, so you could theoretically allow them to return to work after five days, provided that they are symptom free or the symptoms have largely improved, but they should continue to wear a mask for another five at least another five days.

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Paul Carelis: If they have a fever, they should continue to stay home until that fever results.

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Paul Carelis: So that’s if you have a positive case things get a little bit more tricky if someone says they were exposed to coven 19 of the close contact.

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Paul Carelis: And the rules are different in these cases, whether someone is vaccinated or not, and while the CDC still defines fully vaccinated as someone who’s received two doses, the.

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Paul Carelis: In most applications, the booster isn’t required for fully vaccinated status, but under the current CDC guidance, it does come into play so.

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Paul Carelis: In terms of this first set of rules are a little bit more cautious rules for covert exposure this first list would be for folks who are unvaccinated.

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Paul Carelis: Who are vaccinated and haven’t received a booster or if they receive the second dose if they haven’t received their booster their second dose was more than six months ago.

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Paul Carelis: Or if they’re a Johnson and drugs and vaccine recipient.

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Paul Carelis: That that was more than two months ago, so someone who’s unvaccinated or or not boosted or you know could be more susceptible than others, they should stay home for five days.

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Paul Carelis: And then, after that should continue to wear a mask around others for five additional day so essentially the same same treatment that you would for someone who was tested positive.

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Paul Carelis: If for some.

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Paul Carelis: Extreme reason they can’t quarantine for any period of time they they do need to be wearing a mask for all 10 of those days.

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Paul Carelis: Whenever possible I know this can sometimes be a challenge with availability for scheduling and for the availability of home tests.

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Paul Carelis: Ideally, these this employee should get a test on the fifth day after their exposure.

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Paul Carelis: And if at any point they develop symptoms, they should get tested at that point and stay home, pending the results of the test.

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Paul Carelis: So even if it’s fewer than five days or greater than five days if they start to develop symptoms, they should get tested at that time.

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Paul Carelis: Now for workers or folks who are fully vaccinated ever received a booster.

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Paul Carelis: or.

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Paul Carelis: More recently, within the last six months, received their second dose or within the last two months received their shot of Johnson and Johnson.

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Paul Carelis: There isn’t currently a CDC guidance or recommendation that those folks need to necessarily quarantine at all, they can where they can continue to report provided they’re wearing a mask for 10 days, similarly to the above, they should get a test on day five whenever possible.

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Paul Carelis: And if they develop symptoms, they should get tested right away.

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Paul Carelis: Now, as I said, if if this is beyond your comfort zone as an employer, if you still want people regardless of vaccination status to.

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Paul Carelis: To quarantine then that certainly your prerogative and you can do that.

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Paul Carelis: it’s up to you, this is just what the the CDC guidance is as a baseline for right now and what what you should should be doing, if not more.

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Paul Carelis: One thing to keep in mind, before I move into more of the legislative and government stuff.

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Paul Carelis: I know we do have a lot of Members who, who have employees in Massachusetts are headquartered in Massachusetts so while the the federal coven sick leave, has gone away.

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Paul Carelis: The State of Massachusetts along with several other states around the country do have.

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Paul Carelis: Their own emergency coven sick leave, so in Massachusetts.

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Paul Carelis: If someone needs to quarantine if they test positive if they’re going to get vaccinated or they’re caring for someone under any of those circumstances as an employer, you are required to provide up to 40 hours of emergency covert sick leave.

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Paul Carelis: The maximum amount of pay that someone can really receive for those 40 hours is is $850 the benefit is capped out at that.

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Paul Carelis: As an employer, you can be reimbursed for those for that expenditure.

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Paul Carelis: What you need to do is go to mass tax connect and enter through there the information about the employee there’s a form that the employee needs to fill out.

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Paul Carelis: for you to keep on file, but you can claim reimbursement for wages paid under the corporate emergency sickly but again for your Massachusetts employees you do need to be providing that that 40 hours.

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Paul Carelis: If you are in other states feel free to reach out to us we’d be happy to advise you, whether or not there is something similar in in that jurisdiction.

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Paul Carelis: Okay, so what’s going on at the government level.

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Paul Carelis: So first update on what’s known as the proactive so.

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Paul Carelis: The pro Act was a pretty large bill that passed the House and was introduced to the Senate and kind of stalled out there, at least in the most recent legislative session the pro Act was.

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Paul Carelis: Something that would have done a few things definitely ushered in a more organized Labor and Union friendly landscape across businesses a lot of protections and encouragement for unionization efforts.

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Paul Carelis: Also, a lot of scrutiny on who can be considered an employee versus who can be considered a independent contractor so some kind of following suit of a lot of the states who are stricter with those definitions.

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Paul Carelis: we’ll see what happens with that, but the pro act as one big bill, similar to the bill back better bill looks like it has a little bit too much to it to to pass, as it is.

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Paul Carelis: One thing that they are looking to do as part of it is give the national Labor relations board more power to.

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Paul Carelis: enact punitive damages and civil penalties when an employer violates Labor laws or violates the national Labor Relations Act.

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Paul Carelis: So the national Labor Relations Act we’ll get into in a moment, we talked about the NLRB but essentially protects employees rights, the rights to organize their rights for protected speech so on and so forth, so.

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Paul Carelis: There is a chance, and there is a bill out there, that would.

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Paul Carelis: Give them aside from just assessing back wages and things like that give give that agency or that government body more authority and more power to to find and penalize companies a little more heavily.

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Paul Carelis: We are nearing the midterm elections, so.

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Paul Carelis: What that means is.

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Paul Carelis: Fewer and fewer members of the government will want to rock the boat in terms of new legislation so things might get a little bit quiet at the formal bill.

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Paul Carelis: level.

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Paul Carelis: But what that also means is that the actual government agencies may do more rulemaking and the President may.

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Paul Carelis: sit and do more, through executive orders so we’ll talk in a second about department of Labor and all that and what they’ve got cooking but there may be a reduction in what actually happens in the formal kind of bill making process.

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Paul Carelis: One bill that does look headed for passage is the pregnant workers fairness act so this would present any sort of discrimination against pregnant workers.

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Paul Carelis: and provide other protections and rights for them as employees, so that does seem to have bipartisan support.

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Paul Carelis: Once the final version of that look solid will be releasing some some information about it, many states do already have pregnant worker protection plans and and bills and laws, but this would be at the federal level and apply to all companies across the country.

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Paul Carelis: For those of you who are larger businesses have 50 or more full time equivalent employees you’ve probably already familiar with the affordable care Act and the health insurance reporting that you have to do each year.

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Paul Carelis: They are in the process of permanently moving the due date for the forums, you have to supply to your full time employees from the end of January to the end of March.

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Paul Carelis: So while they’re working that out this year they did extend the deadline so if you are subject to the ECA you do have until the end of March to get those forms to your employees provided you otherwise fight with the government electronically.

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Paul Carelis: Okay, so a lot of things cooking at the federal agencies and at the Supreme Court obviously there was the the vaccine mandate case which we’ve already talked about.

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Paul Carelis: Also, an interesting case.

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Paul Carelis: That probably won’t won’t apply to the livery association and livery industry because your ground transportation, but.

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Paul Carelis: really depends on how the opinion is ultimately written, but we do have our friends in the airline industry.

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Paul Carelis: really looking for some clarification and fighting some of the State state wage laws and state Labor laws, just because some of so much of the work of.

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Paul Carelis: flight attendants in particular is done in the air and it’s really hard to say where is that work being done so that’s all going to be sorted out by the Supreme Court this session.

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Paul Carelis: they’re also going to sort out the validity and the legality of what’s known as mandatory arbitration so some businesses will have employees at the time of higher sign an agreement that says.

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Paul Carelis: That if they have a dispute or wish to take legal action against the company that they’re forced into arbitration rather than going to through the court system and instead of an arbitrator here’s the case.

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Paul Carelis: So there there’s a big case challenging that the validity of those agreements that employees enter into so the Supreme Court will be weighing on that in the months to come.

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Paul Carelis: There are a couple other cases that they’re they’re going to be hearing this session will be regarding the power of federal agencies and their ability to inch interpret laws and interpret laws at the State level and then also a case.

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Paul Carelis: which may govern limits on on retirement plan fees that are charged to plan participants, as well as companies who sponsored plans.

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Paul Carelis: So, as promised, I just want to give a quick update in terms of what’s going on at the irs so this doesn’t necessarily pertain to employment law or HR but I know a lot of businesses have submitted employee retention tax credits or otherwise expecting money or refunds from the irs.

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Paul Carelis: But based on some articles recently published, they are truly in a crisis mode so.

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Paul Carelis: As of the end of 2021 there was a backlog of over 6 million tax returns that have gone on filed.

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Paul Carelis: As well as 2 million amended returns so just a huge backlog as as the new tax year started last week so.

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Paul Carelis: Just when they were hoping to catch up there’s going to be more coming in, also there’s their staffing has been reduced.

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Paul Carelis: Through both.

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Paul Carelis: budget cuts, as well as the impact of coven 19 that that we’re all feeling in terms of struggles to to hire people right now, their staffing is around 1970 levels.

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Paul Carelis: They do have 15,000 call Center employees, but if you’ve tried to call the irs recently i’m sure you’ve experienced very long wait times that’s because last year they feel it over 240 million calls and only 9% of folks waited around for for someone to pick up the phone and and respond.

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Paul Carelis: or they they do have web resources available.

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Paul Carelis: For.

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Paul Carelis: For businesses and individuals to check the status of their return, those are getting wallet as well over half a billion visits to the where’s my refund site.

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Paul Carelis: So, in terms of what to take away from this.

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Paul Carelis: If you do have the option in your filings, whether it be personal filings or business filings do highly recommend using the file system rather than a paper return.

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Paul Carelis: Paper returns are just terribly backed up over there, so if you do have the opportunity and the ability to e file I highly recommend that and then also.

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Paul Carelis: This isn’t applicable so when we talk about the rtc they’re making those be done via amended returns they’re making them done via paper.

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Paul Carelis: they’re requiring that the refund be sent via paper check so some things are out of your hands but.

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Paul Carelis: If there are returns and there is the opportunity to receive a refund or a payment via direct deposit we also highly recommend that the timelines on those are much quicker than paper Fiat forms or paper checks.

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Paul Carelis: Okay, so over at the national Labor relations board.

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Paul Carelis: For those of you are unfamiliar the national Labor relations board is.

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Paul Carelis: made is basically a panel, made up of individuals with the the majority by one being of the president’s party.

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Paul Carelis: And what they do is they have one person that general counsel, in addition to the board the general counsel decides what cases they’ll hear what complaints they’ll bring in all having to do with supporting and defending national Labor Relations Act.

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Paul Carelis: which protects again employees rights, the rights to organize.

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Paul Carelis: There is, for protected speech so on and so forth, so.

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Paul Carelis: Looking back at the national Labor relations board in the Obama Administration, there was a lot of action around employee handbooks in the way that policies were worded and written and whether you know.

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Paul Carelis: being too vague or other language that could be chilling of employees rights, a lot of businesses needed to amend their handbook policies to make sure that they were within the guidance of the national Labor relations board.

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Paul Carelis: The next administration will Dan and some of that changed they changed their outlook on policies, instead, taking the view that they would assume that things were lawful and in good faith, unless something was overwhelmingly chilling to employee rights.

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Paul Carelis: But, just like the seasons things change we’ve got a new national Labor relations board.

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Paul Carelis: sitting now, or at least some new members, and they are aggressively seeking cases on uncertain topics and certain areas where.

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Paul Carelis: Some decisions had been reversed or put in place that they think they’ll disagree with so.

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Paul Carelis: They are actively requesting cases about into independent contractors and whether folks are lawfully classified as independent contractors when they should perhaps be classified as employees.

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Paul Carelis: they’ve also gone after Google, the New York Times and Amazon for not following the latest and greatest rules around employee unionization and elections and election rules and meetings and.

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Paul Carelis: The ballot process, so all of that they have going over those three businesses, in particular, following recent unionization efforts at those organizations.

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Paul Carelis: They are also looking to weigh in on severance agreements and certain language within sovereigns agreements.

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Paul Carelis: So if you’ve ever seen or hopefully not but perhaps signed a release of claims as part of a severance agreement, a lot of times you’ll see some language in there that requires the sign or to keep the amount of the settlement or the amount of the severance confidential.

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Paul Carelis: You also sometimes he a non disparagement or more often a mutual non disparagement clause which says and agreements in exchange for receiving the severance you’ll keep the amount of the sermons confidential and you won’t disparage the company in any way.

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Paul Carelis: It sounds like the current iteration of the national Labor relations board takes issue with that.

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Paul Carelis: So they may look to ban that kind of language in sovereigns agreements or or being the validity of it, at least so we’ll see what happens there, but that could that could be could be big news.

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Paul Carelis: Another case that they are taking on right now is with whole foods so you may remember the very beginning of the pandemic there, there was a desktop where some employees walked out.

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Paul Carelis: From whole foods they protested because they had been wearing black lives matter masks while working in whole foods did not allow that.

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Paul Carelis: There was some back and forth eventually they came into some sort of agreement whole foods give give them some things that they could wear but.

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Paul Carelis: The national Labor relations board has weighed in and found that they were infringing upon the employees rates.

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Paul Carelis: That the employees have the rights to talk about their working conditions and inherently their working conditions, involve racism so.

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Paul Carelis: It should have been it should have been waffle for them to wear those black lives matter of masks there’s still a lot to be said, a lot of arguments to be made around this case but.

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Paul Carelis: Should it prevail in in in the employees fever, it could really require businesses, and I know a lot of delivery businesses do have dress code policies and.

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Paul Carelis: appearance policies and things like that, and may require businesses to take another look at those policies to make sure they’re in in line with the current viewpoint and current ruling, so the national Labor relations board.

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Paul Carelis: department of Labor is also keeping very busy.

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Paul Carelis: I often like to take a look at the press releases so that doesn’t encompass all of the action that they’re taking but.

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Paul Carelis: Just in January alone, there were over 20 press releases that involved fines and penalties issued to businesses for violating various Labor laws, OSHA so on and so forth.

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Paul Carelis: So they’re very aggressive they’re they’re got open eyes and open ears there.

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Paul Carelis: At least in my experience they’re moving more quickly than they have previously when it comes to a complaint coming in from an employee or former employee.

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Paul Carelis: Especially on the social side there, I think, very quickly, so when we talk about keeping up with at a bare minimum CDC guidelines when it comes to Corbett you really want to do that, because what we’re seeing is that when an employee complain that says that.

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Paul Carelis: going to OSHA and saying that their employer is not providing a safe workplace osha’s jumping all over that, to the extent that they can give them their staffing challenges as well.

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Paul Carelis: So they have just a month or two ago the gaol did formally enter into a partnership and and then for information sharing agreement with the national Labor relations Board was just talking about.

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Paul Carelis: So there will be some back and forth between them, so if you hear from one you could very well hear from the other as well.

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Paul Carelis: And I did just want to share one case that that did recently occur, you may or may not have heard of it but.

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Paul Carelis: it’s in the automotive industry not necessary, the livery industry, but I believe it was a garage or a mechanic or an auto Body Shop.

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Paul Carelis: and employer and employee had a real falling out and argument, the employee ended up quitting.

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Paul Carelis: But was over $931 in in final pay.

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Paul Carelis: Much to the chagrin of the employee the employer showed up with a truck bed and dumped $931 and pennies on the employees driveway all over the driveway.

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Paul Carelis: oily pennies to not not shiny new pennies but dirty grimy pennies.

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Paul Carelis: And then also provided him with a piece of upon his request that was filled with expletives and derogatory statements about about the employee and then, finally, the employer also via the businesses website.

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Paul Carelis: Shared some thoughts about that employee on on the company website.

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Paul Carelis: So the Department of Labor took on this case they did find that.

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Paul Carelis: The employer was committing retaliation against that employee.

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Paul Carelis: That their actions were unlawful.

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Paul Carelis: And unfortunately, much like we advise our clients when.

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Paul Carelis: When they’re when there’s one case that the Department of Labor doesn’t just focus on that one employee and that one complaint.

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Paul Carelis: They did go go forward and do a more formal audit and review of this employers P practices and, at the end of the day, that those $931 and.

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Paul Carelis: Dirty pennies and whatever joy that brought them to do that ended up costing them $36,000 in damages and back wages to this employee and some others who look like they weren’t paid correctly for overtime so.

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Paul Carelis: Just a word of caution, the Department of Labor is is very active and going after businesses when when they receive a complaint.

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Paul Carelis: Okay, so should you work with or no have any or be considered a federal contractor.

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Paul Carelis: There are some new rules for federal contractors that were recently enacted this year first of which is a.

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Paul Carelis: A $15 minimum wage, there are some exceptions to that, based on the work being done, but by and large, there is now a $15 minimum wage for anyone acting as a as a federal contractor.

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Paul Carelis: And there is now, in addition to just being required to have an affirmative action plan, there is a new reporting system.

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Paul Carelis: called ap VI where federal contractors are going to have to formally submit their affirmative action plans to the Federal Government.

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Paul Carelis: The window for doing that will be march 31 through June 30 of this year, so if you are considered a federal contractor, based on the work that you do you do want to make sure you get up to speed with that.

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Paul Carelis: There is also a collaboration between the equal employment opportunity Commission and the the office of federal contractors.

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Paul Carelis: that’s really urging.

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Paul Carelis: equity in hiring and providing some resources and some guidance around that.

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Paul Carelis: So we’ll see where that where all this takes us.

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Paul Carelis: And then, finally, in terms of state laws and regulations we’re seeing a lot of states enact non compete limit limitations or outright banning them so.

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Paul Carelis: Really setting guidelines and a framework for when a non compete can be valid so sometimes that, depending on the state, it will depend on the employees position, whether it’s a.

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Paul Carelis: exempt professional position or an hourly person, they may some States don’t allow them for hourly non exempt workers there also may be restrictions on the amount of time that a non compete can be in place or the amount of geography, that it can cover.

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Paul Carelis: we’re also seeing a number of States adopt.

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Paul Carelis: Natural hairstyles as protected classes, so allowing employees to go outside of a company’s normal normal dress and or appearance or hygiene.

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Paul Carelis: Protocols to allow for natural hairstyles.

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Paul Carelis: in the workplace.

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Paul Carelis: Illinois has has gone ahead and extended their their protections for disabled workers to also apply to workers and individuals who have an association or someone who’s disabled so where this may pop up is if.

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Paul Carelis: You have an employee, whose spouse or a parent or child is disabled and what, if any accommodations need to be made for that employee to work around that.

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Paul Carelis: California is also always an outlier they penalize or require employers to pay a certain amount of money whenever an employee misses a break.

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Paul Carelis: And they’ve what they’ve essentially done over the last few months is create a.

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Paul Carelis: higher amount of money that would need to be paid to those employees.

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Paul Carelis: When they are missing their breaks.

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Paul Carelis: As I shared Massachusetts Colorado New York, a number of other states to have kuvan sick leave laws in place and that are still active, even after the expiration of the federal Program.

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Paul Carelis: So again, if you’re a multi state employer, and this includes multi State in terms of having remote employees so.

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Paul Carelis: unify your onsite employees are working in Massachusetts but you’ve got some people who may be doing dispatch or scheduling or sales or whatever from a remote environment in another state.

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Paul Carelis: You do need to become familiar with the employment laws in those states as well, because those employees are considered employees of the state where they’re performing work.

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Paul Carelis: So, in terms of looking ahead.

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Paul Carelis: We do.

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Paul Carelis: We always keep our finger on the pulse of litigation trends and kind of what’s entering the courts.

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Paul Carelis: We are seeing a lot of cases of coven discrimination again complaints that an employer did not have a coven safe working environment.

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Paul Carelis: Also, seeing a lot around civil rights and discrimination.

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Paul Carelis: lot of cases around that also a lot of litigation around wage and hour so over time and when someone is being paid overtime.

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Paul Carelis: What compensation is being factored into that rate that time and a half, needs to be based off of.

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Paul Carelis: So if there are defined bonus programs and Commission structures, a lot of times those have to be factored into the renewal rates just not their normal hourly rate necessarily so, a lot of scrutiny of of overtime and overtime rates.

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Paul Carelis: Also, a lot around this classification allow this is pandemic related so.

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Paul Carelis: You know something to keep in mind is you might have had an employee who’s job duties were largely exempt or at a level that you could pay them a salary.

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Paul Carelis: and not have to pay them early in order to pay them overtime, but because of staffing shortages or, again, the pandemic, whatever it may be.

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Paul Carelis: You may have an employee who all of a sudden, is doing a lot of work that’s you know at the level of an hourly employee, and you know all of a sudden their primary functions are no longer exempt level duties.

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Paul Carelis: And we’re starting to see some cases where employees are making that claim and saying hey yeah I wasn’t exempt employee, I was the manager and assistant manager or supervisor, but because of our staffing.

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Paul Carelis: My day to day is largely.

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Paul Carelis: Non exempt work So yes, I was a supervisor here at the coffee shop and was performing managerial duties prior but nowadays i’m really just pouring all the coffee, so I should be eligible for overtime.

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Paul Carelis: Also, a lot of litigation around remote work, you know how many hours, people are working what’s being reported.

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Paul Carelis: Again, employers not realizing that they were subject to certain state laws, because of where the employee was performing the remote work so parental leave disability Lee what have you a lot around that as well.

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Paul Carelis: And then, finally, in terms of things to look for and in the month and year ahead.

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Paul Carelis: I think a continuing trend of what I was talking about just fights over jurisdiction so earlier on in the pandemic, a lot of states were.

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Paul Carelis: pretty easy about just saying hey yeah We understand that you can’t have employees working.

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Paul Carelis: At your offices, so if they’re working from home and that happens to be out of state.

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Paul Carelis: You can continue to just treat them as as they were before, but now that this has gone on for so long states are really cracking down and saying hey yeah if you have an employee who lives in our state and they’re working from home.

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Paul Carelis: You really need to start paying employment taxes or perhaps other taxes in our state, we want that revenue, we want that income.

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Paul Carelis: same also applies to employment law, so you know Massachusetts is a great example, they have the paid family medical leave here.

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Paul Carelis: And that only pertains to employees who are whose workplaces Massachusetts So if you have an employee who had been working in your offices, but now.

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Paul Carelis: For the next for on a permanent basis, especially is going to be working from their home in new Hampshire they may not be a Massachusetts employee anymore, and really may not be eligible for a paid family medical leave if they need to use it.

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Paul Carelis: I think we’re also going to see some real, serious department of Labor action around independent contractors and some rulemaking around who can be considered that.

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Paul Carelis: Depending on the setup of your business that could be good news or bad news we’ll see I know we’re all familiar with all the efforts that the disruptors within the industry and ride sharing has had and their ability to use independent contractors so.

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Paul Carelis: This could this could create some limitations on them, obviously we know about the the war chest that they have and what they were able to do in California with that ballot initiative but.

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Paul Carelis: it’ll be really interesting to see how that unfolds at the federal level with department of Labor.

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Paul Carelis: We also expect to see more guidance and more wrinkles around unionization so how quickly.

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Paul Carelis: The organizing group can have an election what what that process looks like whether employers are allowed to have.

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Paul Carelis: required meetings to talk about unionization efforts what they’re allowed to say in those meetings what they’re allowed to distribute what they’re allowed to communicate.

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Paul Carelis: You know whether or not employees are allowed to use company property or company resources such as email to talk about unionization effort so a lot to be hashed out there just be sure you’re you’re following the latest and greatest with that.

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Paul Carelis: We will keep the.

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Paul Carelis: The Association website up to date with all of our webinars our recordings are other resources, and if you haven’t already, please do check out the association website where you have a link to ask HR questions of myself and our team.

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Paul Carelis: But as I said before, we do also expect some changes to handbook policies over the next year, based on NLRB decisions, so a lot to keep your eyes peeled on a lot to keep your finger on the pulse of but.

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Paul Carelis: Here at MP, we eat sleep and breathe HR so we’re keeping on top of it, so you don’t have to just make sure you’re getting our our communications and our emails and we will keep you up to date.

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Rick Szilagyi: Oh.

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Paul Carelis: yeah so that does conclude my session.

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Paul Carelis: Without any further questions i’ll hand things over over to rick to close us up.

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Rick Szilagyi: If you don’t mind i’d like to raise questions in your crystal ball slide.

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Rick Szilagyi: Sure you’re like she could things get any more conflict.

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Rick Szilagyi: yeah so so right now, when it appears that you can.

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Rick Szilagyi: Ask the candidate if they’ve been vaccinated and if they have not if they are willing to go weekly.

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Paul Carelis: That is correct, yes, so.

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Paul Carelis: As I said, well, while the vaccine mandate and the requirement to do that has been has been thrown out at this time for businesses.

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Paul Carelis: who have wanted to have a greater greater sense of that or or require a vaccination ask about you know collect vaccination status of their employees or have them submit to weekly testing if they’re not vaccinated.

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Paul Carelis: All the government agencies and all the course the data have supported those efforts by employer so.

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Paul Carelis: In terms of as of now, yes, employers can do that if they want to have those policies and that structure in place and i’m sure it’s it can be effective for your.

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Paul Carelis: For your clientele and marketing efforts to be able to say that you’ve got a vaccinated workforce or attested work for us So yes, you are allowed to do that.

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Rick Szilagyi: follow up questions if you go right so.

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Paul Carelis: sure.

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Rick Szilagyi: So does that mean a ground transportation company can request a copy of the vaccination hard.

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Paul Carelis: Yes, so.

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Paul Carelis: When we look at what the rules were going to be sometimes that’s good guidance for what might be permissible.

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Paul Carelis: In most cases, you could you could definitely ask you could require a copy of the Vaccination Card, there was some guidance that.

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Paul Carelis: hey if someone lost it here’s what they should do they should ask you know the provider or the there you know state health agency for.

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Paul Carelis: A new version of the card for some reason it was just impossible, there was an out for employees to fill out this kind of lengthy affidavit and go into great detail about their vaccination history and records, but.

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Paul Carelis: I think that’d be a really extreme case and, in most cases, yes, you can ask for a copy of the card okay.

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Rick Szilagyi: Assuming free testings not available is the ground transportation company on the book to bear the financial burden of the testing.

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Paul Carelis: Now, at the federal level and at most state levels.

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Paul Carelis: To the the courts and the agencies and the State governments have said that.

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Paul Carelis: You can you know put that expense on employees one exception, because I know we’ve got reached throughout New England.

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Paul Carelis: New Hampshire surprisingly as buck that trend and so they’ve new Hampshire has specifically said that as an employer.

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Paul Carelis: In New Hampshire if you’re requiring employees to get tested that the employer does need to assume that cost and responsibility, but that is an outlier the other states that i’m familiar with at least have have allowed employees to have to bear that expense.

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Rick Szilagyi: And just.

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Rick Szilagyi: Switching gears just a little bit and you mentioned what occurred in California with 85 and 22 relative to.

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Rick Szilagyi: uber and lyft and independent contractors and the AG, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts as for suit against uber and lyft.

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Rick Szilagyi: relative to this class misclassification.

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Rick Szilagyi: If you have any updates on that seems you know information goes underground for a while.

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Paul Carelis: yeah so I mean at least over in California that’s that’s the law of the land yeah Massachusetts in particular things you’re right things have been quiet I haven’t received an update on where things stand there.

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Paul Carelis: it’ll it’ll be interesting to see how this plays out, I think.

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Paul Carelis: I think Massachusetts is kind of in a holding pattern in and maybe they maybe they’ve got some insider information, since.

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Paul Carelis: Marty Walsh or for me or Boston is the current Secretary of the Department of Labor so he heads up that division.

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Paul Carelis: I have a feeling they’re kind of waiting to see what, if any, action over the next few months, though the federal department of Labor takes around creating a federal rule and.

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Paul Carelis: You know I also think that the ride sharing company, not to say they’re short on cash by any means, but they may be, preserving their war chest, to see what what they need to go after, whether it be state laws or the federal rulemaking process.

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Rick Szilagyi: Tomorrow, actually.

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Rick Szilagyi: associations that have a meeting with some knowledgeable parties and.

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Rick Szilagyi: yeah just to really hear from the horse’s mouth that were you know what their experience was would they be five and 22.

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Rick Szilagyi: Since looks like it could be a ballot initiative going on in the commune oh.

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Paul Carelis: yeah yeah so we’ll we’ll see how that shakes out.

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Paul Carelis: But I haven’t received a formal update on that, in particular, just yet, but i’ll be sure to to look into that and we’ve got it will, this is now part of a monthly webinar series so we’ll be doing another one, the first.

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Paul Carelis: Wednesday of next month, the same time.

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Paul Carelis: And regardless of the topic i’ll try to do a brief industry update at the top, just to make sure we’re all on the same page, as well as sending stuff out as as it is relevant.

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Rick Szilagyi: Excellent well Thank you so much for today’s presentation and our past work together and we look forward to doing this every Wednesday.

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Rick Szilagyi: Every Wednesday of.

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Rick Szilagyi: The month.

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Paul Carelis: yeah likewise now I really enjoyed the session and look forward to to the roll up thanks so much.

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Rick Szilagyi: yep Thank you everybody.