Update on EEOC COVID-19 Guidelines
This week, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) updated its COVID-19 technical assistance, What You Should Know About COVID-19 and the ADA, the Rehabilitation Act, and Other EEO Laws.
Among other things, the revised guidance addresses possible reasonable accommodations for employees with “long COVID” (also known as “Post-COVID Conditions”), linking to a longer list posted by the Job Accommodation Network.
Overtime, FMLA, and the ADA
The US Department of Labor (DOL) has issued an opinion letter regarding employees who have health conditions that prevent them from working overtime, noting that the leave provisions of the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) are distinct from the reasonable accommodation obligations of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
Whether or not an employee is eligible for FMLA leave, the employee may be entitled to a reasonable accommodation pursuant to the ADA involving working no more than a certain numbers of hours per day or week. Further, an employee may be eligible to use intermittent FMLA leave to cover the remainder of long shifts.
FLSA and FMLA Rights for Employees Who Telework
The DOL has also issued guidance on how employers should determine eligibility for leave under FMLA when employees telework, as well as how to ensure that teleworkers are properly paid and take appropriate breaks under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).
NLRB Limitations on Workplace Discipline
Earlier this month, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) issued a decision that restores legal protection for workers who engage in misconduct during the course of a protected activity.
Under the Trump administration, the Board held that an employer could discipline employees for misconduct in connection with protected concerted activity, as long as the protected activity was not the motivation for the discipline.
The NLRB now returns to the use of “situation specific standards,” meaning it will determine whether the misconduct, in light of the circumstances, is severe enough to no longer be protected by the National Labor Rights Act (NLRA).
Given this change, in some circumstances, employers will no longer be able to discipline employees for behaviors like making verbal threats, cursing, shouting, making racially and/or sexually offensive comments, and engaging in other abusive conduct.
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Whether you are an employee or an employer, please feel free to contact us if you have any questions about the above or any other employment-law issues.
For more information about employment law, see Employment Law (in Plain English)®, co-authored by members of this law firm.
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