Safety and Health (including COVID-19)

Effective Monday, December 13, 2021, businesses with any indoor space that is not a private residence in New York State  (which includes office spaces) must require that all employees and patrons two years and older, regardless of vaccination status, wear a mask at all times while indoors if they are not requiring proof of vaccination upon entry to … Read more

On November 16, 2021, the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit was selected in a lottery to address the many legal disputes relating to OSHA’s recent Emergency Temporary Standard (“ETS”). As previously reported, since the ETS was published on November 5, 2021, 34 petitions had been filed in 12 different federal appeals … Read more

On October 31, 2021, the Commissioner of the New York Department of Health announced that the designation of COVID-19 as a highly contagious communicable disease that presents a risk of harm to the public is extended until December 15, 2021.  As you may recall, all employers, regardless of size, were required to establish an airborne infectious … Read more

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) has issued updates to the COVID-19 Technical Assistance to provide additional guidance on religious exemptions to vaccine mandates in the workplace.  The updated guidance provides a new section “L” entitled Vaccinations – Title VII and Religious Objections to COVID-19 Vaccine Mandates, which follows a Question and Answer (“Q&A”) … Read more

As we previously reported, New York City Mayor de Blasio announced a mandate that all New York City public school teachers and staff would be required to get at least one dose of a vaccine by September 27, 2021 or face termination. According to the mandate, Department of Education staff would no longer have the … Read more

On September 14, 2021, a federal judge temporarily blocked the enforcement of New York’s vaccine mandate for healthcare workers seeking a religious exemption to the requirement.  The mandate requires covered entities to ensure their personnel are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, with the first dose for current personnel received by September 27, 2021, for general hospitals … Read more