PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - DOL’s Guidance on Continued COVID-19 Timeframe Relief
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - COVID-19 Edition - Deadline Extensions Impacting HIPAA, COBRA and ERISA
What's Next for the Paycheck Protection Program? by Lindsey Berwick and John Wittenberg
In a significant development for employers and Haitian nationals under Temporary Protected Status (TPS), the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has updated its guidance to reflect a court-ordered automatic...more
After reaching out to both U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and the Department of Justice’s Immigrant and Employee Rights Section (IER) for clarification, USCIS has issued a significant and unexpected update...more
Matter of Pressimone v. New York City Housing Authority (5/1/25) - This case highlights the importance of issuing subpoenas and, when appropriate, requests for extensions in good faith for the deposition testimony of...more
If you have been following immigration news and are wondering how changes in Washington might affect your workforce, you are not alone. Senate Joint Resolution 8 (S.J. Res. 8) in the 119th Congress aims to undo a USCIS...more
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced a permanent increase in the automatic extension period for certain Employment Authorization Documents (EADs) up to 540 days. The final rule will take effect on January 13,...more
On July 12, 2023, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) added eight fields of study to the Designated Degree Program List qualifying F-1 students to secure a STEM OPT (science, technology, engineering, mathematics...more
On January 30, 2023, the Biden administration[1] announced that on May 11, 2023 it plans to end the COVID-19 national emergency (Outbreak Period) and public health emergency (Public Health Emergency), which were declared by...more
On January 30, 2023, President Biden announced the Administration’s plan to extend the current declarations of the COVID-19 national emergency and public health emergency (PHE) through May 11, 2023, and end both emergencies...more
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) again extended certain COVID-19-related flexibilities, this time through March 23, 2023. However, USCIS anticipates that this will be the final extension for these...more
On October 11, 2022, the U.S. Department of Labor (the DOL) announced a proposed rule to reestablish the pre-2021 analytic framework for assessing the classification of workers under the Fair Labor Standards Act...more
In March 2020, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement relaxed some of the I-9 compliance requirements because of the COVID-19 pandemic. One of these “flexibilities” ended this...more
On February 28, 2022, California Governor Gavin Newsom extended the second readoption of the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health’s (Cal/OSHA) COVID-19 Prevention Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS) currently...more
Outside of the United States, claims for constructive acceleration usually fail. However, in a recent Australian case such a claim succeeded. Does this now open the way for contractors to deploy constructive acceleration...more
Each year in California, the new year brings new employment laws for businesses to follow. This is a good time for exempt organization employers to evaluate their policies and practices to ensure they keep pace with these...more
What Happened? I Thought This Was Gone! On Friday, December 17, the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit lifted the nationwide Stay that had been previously put in place by the United States Court of...more
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit has dissolved the Fifth Circuit’s stay of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) COVID-19 Vaccination and Testing Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS)....more
In the past few days, there have been multiple developments in the legal challenges to the various vaccine mandates, one in favor of a mandate, one against. In addition, the first vaccine mandate challenge has now reached the...more
On November 4, 2021, in response to President Biden’s Executive Order, the Department of Labor, through the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (“OSHA”), issued an Emergency Temporary Standard (“ETS”). You can read...more
The courts continue to move the vaccine mandate goalposts on employers as dozens of legal challenges work their way through the courts. The latest developments are major game changers for employers. As of the publishing of...more
On December 13, 2021, the California Department of Public Health (CDPH), citing the Omicron variant and the need for additional protection during the holiday season, issued statewide guidance requiring face masks to be worn...more
After a wild weekend following some headline-grabbing court rulings, employers are heading into the holidays wondering what on earth is going on with workplace COVID-19 vaccine requirements. While clarity remains elusive, our...more
On December 17, 2021, the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals lifted the stay on OSHA’s COVID-19 Emergency Temporary Standard (“ETS”), allowing OSHA to move forward with enforcing the ETS — including its rule requiring large...more
On December 17, 2021, the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit lifted the stay of the OSHA standard requiring vaccination or weekly testing of workers at private employers with 100 or more employees that the...more
On December 17, 2021, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals dissolved the stay that blocked OSHA from enforcing its vaccine or testing mandate. The OSHA ETS is once again in effect unless the United States Supreme Court agrees...more
On December 13, 2021, the California Department of Public Health issued binding guidance requiring all Californians statewide to mask indoors irrespective of vaccination status. The new guidance supersedes California’s...more