On the final day of the Kentucky General Assembly’s 2021 session, it fulfilled one of its top legislative priorities: enacting a new law that provides personal injury liability protections against COVID-19-related claims to...more
At the beginning of its 2021 legislative session, the Indiana General Assembly vowed to fast track a bill to provide civil tort immunity to businesses for damages arising on their premises from COVID-19. On February 15, less...more
The 2021 Kentucky General Assembly got underway last week and, as expected, the leaders wasted no time setting their COVID-19 legislative agenda. Of particular importance for Kentucky businesses is Senate Bill 5, which, if...more
Federal lawmakers agreed to a second round of stimulus legislation late last night, sending a nearly 6,000-page bill to President Trump for his expected signature. The proposal allocates $900 billion in economic relief to...more
12/23/2020
/ Borrowers ,
Business Expenses ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Employee Benefits ,
Employee Retention ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) ,
Federal Loans ,
Financial Stimulus ,
Flexible Spending Accounts ,
Income Taxes ,
Loan Applications ,
Loan Forgiveness ,
Paid Leave ,
Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) ,
Relief Measures ,
Reporting Requirements ,
Retail Workers ,
Return-to-Work Agreements ,
Small Business ,
Small Business Loans ,
Tax Benefits ,
Tax Deductions ,
Unemployment Benefits
Media outlets announced Saturday that Joe Biden will become the 46th president of the United States. If the legal challenges to the election result fail and he is inaugurated in January, President-Elect Biden can begin taking...more
11/10/2020
/ Anti-Retaliation Provisions ,
Biden Administration ,
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) ,
Citations ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Employee Rights ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Health and Safety ,
Infectious Diseases ,
OSHA ,
Safety Inspections ,
Workplace Hazards ,
Workplace Illness and Injury Reporting ,
Workplace Safety
When thinking about safety training for your workforce, you may be, understandably, focused on your workforce as a whole. Just as important, however, is considering the age, gender, nationality, and other aspects of all of...more
This article addresses many employment-related issues facing employers in the wake of hurricane-related disasters; consequently, in addition to federal laws, we also focus on certain state laws, especially those in the areas...more
8/21/2020
/ Business Closures ,
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) ,
Charitable Donations ,
COBRA ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Covered Employees ,
Data Privacy ,
Employee Benefits ,
Employer Group Health Plans ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Litigation ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) ,
Force Majeure Clause ,
Foreign Workers ,
Form I-9 ,
H-1B ,
Health and Safety ,
Health Insurance ,
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) ,
Health Plan Sponsors ,
Highly-Skilled Workers Visa ,
HIPAA Privacy Rule ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Hurricane Season ,
Infectious Diseases ,
Labor Relations ,
Medical Leave ,
Military Leave ,
Military Service Members ,
Natural Disasters ,
NLRB ,
OSHA ,
Retirement ,
Retirement Plan ,
Retirement Plan Providers ,
State Labor Laws ,
Unemployment Benefits ,
Unemployment Compensation System ,
Unions ,
USCIS ,
USERRA ,
Visa Applications ,
Visas ,
Volunteers ,
Wage and Hour ,
Workplace Hazards ,
Workplace Injury ,
Workplace Safety
Because COVID-19 continues to spread at a rapid rate throughout the country, with positivity rates hovering between 7% and 8% in Indiana, Governor Eric Holcomb recently announced he will sign an executive order requiring face...more
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration recently announced that OSHA area offices will begin to increase in-person inspections in some parts of the country as the agency released a revised response plan on how it...more
The Kentucky Labor Cabinet’s Department of Workplace Standards released its proposed amendments to its injury and illness recordkeeping and reporting requirements on February 11, 2020. A public hearing on these amendments...more
4/24/2020
/ Comment Period ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Health and Safety ,
OSHA ,
Proposed Amendments ,
Public Comment ,
Recordkeeping Requirements ,
Reporting Requirements ,
Workplace Illness and Injury Reporting ,
Workplace Injury ,
Workplace Safety
Have you ever heard the expression “a good craftsman never blames his tools”? Well, that doesn’t apply to Buzz Kutt, one of your technicians who continually blames others for his own inability to turn hours. Now that summer...more
Employee burnout is now an officially diagnosable condition. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), which recently updated its definition, employee burnout is not a medical condition. Instead, the WHO calls burnout...more
As you may have seen in the news, an anticipated first all-female astronaut spacewalk had to be cancelled because the International Space Station did not have the appropriate sized space suits for both of the female...more
Indiana GOP lawmaker and Chamber of Commerce join forces to support a bill to require a penalty for workplace fatalities of $100,000 per employee killed. House Bill 1341, authored by GOP lawmaker Martin Carbaugh, was filed on...more
When the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issued a memorandum in 2018 announcing that agency inspectors are now authorized to use camera-carrying Unmanned Aircraft Systems—or drones—to collect evidence...more
1/9/2019
/ Consent ,
Drones ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Fourth Amendment ,
Memorandum of Guidance ,
OSHA ,
Privacy Concerns ,
Safety Inspections ,
Safety Violations ,
Search Warrant ,
Workplace Safety
OSHA Rolls Back Enforcement of Anti-Retaliation Provisions!
Yesterday, the U.S. Occupational Health and Safety Administration (“OSHA”) issued a standard interpretation clarifying its position on the new recordkeeping rule’s...more
10/12/2018
/ Anti-Retaliation Provisions ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Drug Testing ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Policies ,
New Guidance ,
New Rules ,
OSHA ,
Recordkeeping Requirements ,
Reporting Requirements ,
Retaliation ,
Workplace Illness and Injury Reporting ,
Workplace Safety
In what appears to be the first time a federal appeals court has extended the nation’s main federal employment discrimination statute to cover transgender and transitioning employees, the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals...more
3/8/2018
/ Appeals ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Employment Litigation ,
Human Resources Professionals ,
LGBTQ ,
Protected Class ,
Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) ,
Sexual Orientation Discrimination ,
Title VII ,
Transgender
It’s hard to keep up with all the recent changes to labor and employment law. While the law always seems to evolve at a rapid pace, there have been an unprecedented number of changes each month in 2017. November was no...more
12/7/2017
/ Affordable Care Act ,
Appeals ,
Attorney General ,
Decriminalization of Marijuana ,
Electronic Filing ,
Employee Benefits ,
Employee Rights ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employer Mandates ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Failed Legislation ,
Fair Workweek ,
Federal Labor Laws ,
Filing Deadlines ,
Fines ,
Gender Discrimination ,
Gig Economy ,
Harassment ,
Independent Contractors ,
IRS ,
Joint Employers ,
LGBTQ ,
Marijuana ,
Misclassification ,
Paid Leave ,
Proposed Legislation ,
Proposed Rules ,
Rest and Meal Break ,
Salary/Wage History ,
SCOTUS ,
Sex Discrimination ,
Sexual Harassment ,
State Labor Laws ,
Tax Penalties ,
Title VII ,
Uber ,
UK ,
Wage and Hour ,
Work Schedules ,
Workplace Illness and Injury Reporting
The December 1 compliance date for federal OSHA’s new electronic recordkeeping portion of the new recordkeeping regulation is fast approaching. Known as “Improve Tracking of Workplace Injuries and Illnesses,” the new federal...more
On September 11, 2014, OSHA released its final rule for Occupational Injury and Illness Recording and Reporting Requirements. The rule, which takes effect on January 1, 2015, makes two important changes that tighten OSHA’s...more