Employers with 10 or more employees must post their completed Cal/OSHA Form 300A by Feb. 1 and keep it posted in their workplace until April 30. The form must be posted where the company usually posts other employee notices, like minimum wage and workplace safety notices. Form 300A summarizes the total number of fatalities, missed…
With so many people working from home during the COVID-19 pandemic, logic would dictate that instances of workplace sexual harassment would have plummeted since people are not in the office or any other facility together. Logic would be wrong. Sexual harassment of employees by other employees or superiors has moved online, according to recent reports.…
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has affirmed that employers can mandate COVID-19 vaccines for employees, subject to some limitations. The EEOC’s updated guidance offers direction regarding employer-mandated vaccinations, accommodations for employees who cannot be vaccinated due to a disability or sincerely held religious belief, and certain implications of pre-vaccination medical screening questions under the Americans…
The commercial insurance rate hikes that have been ongoing since 2017 are expected to continue into 2021 with double-digit increases for most lines of insurance, according to a new report. The survey of insurance executives by Alera Group Inc. forecasts that commercial rates will increase across all lines nationwide by an average of 11.6% this…
The $900 billion COVID-19 relief bill, passed by Congress and signed into law on Dec. 27, includes a number of provisions that affect employers and their workers in terms of paid sick leave and Emergency Family and Medical Leave Act provisions. The legislation also boosts unemployment benefits to out-of-work Americans, as well as reopening and…
Even businesses that own fleets of autos sometimes use vehicles that do not belong to them. Often, a business asks an employee to run an errand or visit a customer or vendor using that employee’s car. The business may become legally liable for anything an employee acting on the business’s behalf does while behind the…
As 2021 gets underway and while you’re making New Year’s resolutions, you should also resolve to review the state of your business’s insurance program. The best way to do that is to start by reviewing your enterprise’s activities in the past year and how they may affect your insurance policies in the new year. What…
Here is the second half of the top 10 laws and regulations affecting California employers in 2021, changes that organizations need to keep on their radar and prepare for. 6. Wildfire smoke safety regulations With wildfires becoming the new normal in California, Cal/OSHA has set about working on permanent wildfire smoke regulations to protect outdoor…
Every year starts with a bevy of new laws and regulations affecting employers and businesses in California, and many of the new rules this time around are an outgrowth of the COVID-19 pandemic and its effects on workers. Employers in California in the year ahead have a number of changes they have to contend with,…
Despite the state’s rating agency asking for a 2.6% increase in workers’ compensation rates due to costs related to the coronavirus pandemic, California’s insurance commissioner has instead ordered that benchmark rates be cut 4.6%. Besides the rate increase, the Workers’ Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau had recommended that all policies be subject to a COVID-19 surcharge…