On July 9, 2021, Washington’s Department of Labor & Industries filed an emergency rule to increase protection for employees exposed to extreme heat at work.
On July 13, 2021, Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont signed into law Substitute Senate Bill No. 658, An Act Requiring Employers to Recall Certain Laid-Off Workers in Order of Seniority.
The NY Department of Labor has published a series of documents including its Airborne Infectious Disease Exposure Prevention Standard, a Model Airborne Infectious Disease Exposure Prevention Plan, and 11 industry-specific template plans.
An arbitrator in Ontario recently decided that when the intrusiveness of an employer’s compulsory Rapid COVID-19 Antigen Screening Program was weighed against the objective of preventing the spread of COVID-19, the policy was reasonable.
June 2021 culminated in the elimination of COVID-19 restrictions in Oregon and significant changes to the state’s employment laws during the 2021 legislative session.
Ontario announced that with improvements in key indicators relating to public health and health care, and the provincewide vaccination rate surpassing targets, it will be moving all Ontario regional health units to Stage Three of its Roadmap to Reopen.
N.J. Governor Murphy signed a package of bills expanding the power of the Department of Labor and Workforce Development to enforce state wage, benefit and tax laws, and enhancing penalties for employers that misclassify workers as independent contractors.
As a result of a compromise reached during recent budget negotiations, Pennsylvania repealed an administrative rule that would have substantially increased the salary threshold needed to qualify as an exempt EAP employee under the state minimum wage act.
On July 8, 2021, Oregon’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (Oregon OSHA) adopted emergency Heat Illness Prevention rules to establish workplace heat safety requirements that apply when temperatures in a work area reach or exceed 80 degrees.
