Uncategorized

On July 14, 2020, Colorado enacted the “Healthy Families and Workplaces Act,” Senate Bill 20-205, which requires employers with at least 16 employees to provide paid sick leave to their workers. Starting January 1, 2021, these workers will receive up to 48 hours paid sick leave per year (1 hour accrued for every 30 hours worked).

On July 15, Virginia adopted the nation’s first statewide emergency workplace safety standards related to COVID-19. Governor Northam stated: “Workers should not have to sacrifice their health and safety to earn a living, especially during an ongoing global pandemic.”

Many employers around the country continue to run their operations under inequitable pay structures that create disparities between men and women, despite federal protections against such inequality enshrined in the Equal Pay Act and other authorities. Accordingly, many employers find that shortchanging the women in their workforce ultimately hurts them in the long run.

As of July 1, 2020, the minimum wage in the District of Columbia increased to $15 per hour and the minimum wage for tipped employees—workers like servers and bartenders—increased to $5 per hour. This means that tipped employees who work overtime must be paid at least $12.50 per hour for all hours of overtime work.

[07/09/2020 Update] More states have addressed the continuing impact of COVID-19 on American workers, including updating their earlier responses:

In both a major victory for labor rights and a well-deserved rebuke to the current, notoriously anti-union Federal Labor Relations Authority (“FLRA”), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit reversed an FLRA decision, on June 9, 2020, that had greatly reduced the types of workplace changes over which federal sector unions could negotiate.

Using the COVID-19 pandemic as an excuse, the Department of Labor (“DOL”), the federal agency whose mission is to “[t]o foster, promote, and develop the welfare of the wage earners, job seekers, and retirees of the United States; improve working conditions; advance opportunities for profitable employment; and assure work-related benefits and rights,” has further betrayed America’s workers. 

One June 15, 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Title VII’s prohibition of discrimination “because of … sex” prohibits discrimination based on a worker’s gender identity or sexual orientation.

On June 11, 2020, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) issued additional guidance relating to reasonable accommodations as employees prepare to return to the workplace in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.

McGillivary Steele Elkin LLP has historically represented workers and unions, including in their efforts to fight discrimination in the workplace. Our dedication to your rights as an employee is a core tenet of who we are as a firm. But our work alone is not enough.