Effective January 1, 2025, New York employees are permitted to file for workers’ compensation benefits for mental health injuries. Specifically, the New York’s Workers’ Compensation Law has been revised to allow any worker to file for workers’ compensation for specific types of mental injury premised on extraordinary work-related stress and provides that the Workers’ Compensation […]
On September 4, 2024, Governor Hochul signed into law the New York Retail Worker Safety Act which will impose significant workplace violence prevention requirements on retail employers. Most of the law’s provisions will take effect on March 1, 2025. Specifically, under the new law, retail employers with ten or more employees will be required to […]
As we are all aware, New York State issued an order implementing the New York State COVID-19 Leave Law, providing job-protected leave for employees who are subject to a mandatory or precautionary order of quarantine or isolation due to COVID-19. While the pandemic seems like a thing of the past, the New York State COVID-19 […]
On January 26, 2023, The U.S. Department of Labor announced that its Occupational Safety and Health Administration (“OSHA”) has issued new enforcement guidance to make its penalties more effective in stopping employers from repeatedly exposing workers to life-threatening hazards or failing to comply with certain workplace safety and health requirements. OSHA Regional Administrators and Area […]
As a reminder, employers are required to complete OSHA Form 300-A Summary of Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses for 2022 by February 1, 2023, and to post it through April 30, 2023. The Form 300 is the Log of Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses that employers must use to record all new cases of work-related fatalities, injuries, […]
New York City’s coronavirus vaccine mandates for private sector workers and student athletes ended on November 1, 2022. It will now be up to individual business owners to decide if they want to maintain a vaccine requirement. The vaccination requirement will remain for New York City municipal workers, including police officers, firefighters and teachers.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (“OSHA”) has issued a new National Emphasis Program (the “program”) on heat inspections and is launching a rulemaking process to develop a workplace heat standard. In addition, OSHA is forming a National Advisory Committee on Occupational Safety and Health Heat Injury and Illness Prevention Work Group to provide better […]
New York Governor Kathy Hochul has signed into law a bill that extends New York State’s COVID-19 vaccine paid leave law for an additional year, through December 31, 2023. The law requires New York employers to provide employees with “a sufficient period of time, not to exceed four hours” of paid leave per dose (including […]
The U. S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (“CDC”) released updated COVID-19 guidelines on August 11, 2022. While the CDC is currently in the process of updating its “Workplaces and Businesses” webpage to align its updated guidance, at this juncture, based on the updated guidelines, employers can revise their COVID-19 guidelines to address the […]
On July 29, 2022, New York State declared a state of disaster emergency in response to the ongoing monkeypox outbreak. The Executive Order enables the state to respond more swiftly to the outbreak and allows health care professionals to take additional steps that will help get more New Yorkers vaccinated. In addition, on Saturday, July […]
On July 12, 2022, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) updated its COVID-19 FAQs, revising earlier guidance regarding permissible COVID-19 testing, workplace screening, and mandatory vaccine policies. We recommend that employers review the updated guidance in its entirety, which can be found at www.eeoc.gov/wysk/what-you-should-know-about-covid-19-and-ada-rehabilitation-act-and-other-eeo-laws
On March 17, 2022, the designation of COVID-19 as an airborne infectious disease that presents a serious risk of harm to the public health under the HERO Act ended. Private sector employers are no longer required to implement their workforce safety plans.” Employers, however, are still required to have a HERO Act safety plan, provide […]
