ICYMI—Two Lawyers Talk COVID-19 Vaccine Concerns, New DOL Bulletins, And Looking Toward 2021

Yesterday, my esteemed law partner Eric Meyer got together for lunch with about 200 of you, including my Dad, to talk about some employment law things on our mind.

Neither of us get out much, clearly.

Guest-starring on Eric’s YouTube blog was certainly the highlight of my week!

But ICYMI, we started off with the two new Field Assistance Bulletins, published under the wire by the U.S. Department of Labor and what they mean for remote workforces.

One bulletin discusses meeting certain statutory requirements when posting required notices electronically under certain federal statutes like the Fair Labor Standards Act, the Family Medical Leave Act (“FMLA”), and the Employee Polygraph Protect Act. The other concerns the use of telemedicine to establish a “serious health condition” under the FMLA.

Eric and I chatted a bit about the optional extension of paid sick and family leave under the Families First Coronavirus Response Act and entertained a lively Q&A based on which of you were extending the leave through Q1 of 2021.

We moved on to talk about the pros and cons of a mandatory COVID-19 vaccine programs in the workplace, and fielded some great questions about incentivizing employees to get the vaccine, whether employers need to pay for employees to get a COVID-19 vaccine, and aspects of disability (under the ADA) and religion-based exceptions to a mandatory vaccine program.

Employers learned some hard lessons in 2020 and evaded some pitfalls.

Finally, we even made some employment law predictions for 2021.

If you missed our little webinar, you can find it here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrEJXADXRp4 

2020, we’re glad to see the back of you and look forward to 2021!