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The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (“OSHA”) has published its long-awaited emergency temporary standard (“ETS”) on COVID-19 vaccination, testing and face coverings, effective as of today (November 5, 2021), and applicable to employers with 100 or more employees.

The White House has announced that the requirement for covered employees at covered federal contractor workplaces to be fully vaccinated under the Safer Federal Workforce Task Force Guidance for Federal Contractors and Subcontractors (the “Contractor Guidance”) has been extended to January 4, 2022.

On November 1, 2021, the Biden administration’s Safer Federal Workforce Task Force issued new Frequently Asked Questions (“FAQs”) for federal contractors subject to Executive Order No. 14042 (“EO 14042”) on Ensuring Adequate COVID Safety Protocols for Federal Contractors.

When Texas governor Greg Abbott issued an executive order on October 11th stating that no entity in Texas could compel receipt of a COVID-19 vaccination by “any individual, including an employee or a consumer” who objects for any reason of “personal conscience, based on a religious belief, or for medical reasons, including prior recovery from COVID-19,” he set the stage for a potential conflict with pre-existing executive orders issued by President Biden.

On October 28, 2021, the State of Florida filed a challenge to the Biden administration’s requirement that employees of federal government contractors be vaccinated by December 8, 2021.

Our Eleventh Annual Hydraulic Fracturing Symposium featured six dynamic speakers who focused on comprehensive analysis of the shifting industry landscape.

At this point, you’re probably aware that the Biden Administration’s COVID-19 Action Plan required all employers with 100 or more employees to ensure their workforce is fully vaccinated or require any workers who remain unvaccinated to produce a negative test result on at least a weekly basis before coming to work.

Perhaps I should not have been surprised that my clients who have mandated COVID-19 vaccines have seen far more objections to their mandates based on religious grounds than on medical conditions or disabilities.

On September 9, 2021, the White House announced a series of actions intended to reduce the number of Americans who have not been vaccinated against COVID-19.

I was tempted to take the easy way out for a Labor Day message and just repeat the one we sent last year. It seemed that little had changed, and the message still applied. But then, I think that doing so would be to ignore all the changes that are happening in our modern workplace and that will likely happen in the coming year.

September 1st is coming. And with it a change to Texas’ employment discrimination law arguably making supervisors or managers liable for sexual harassment. Now is a great time to dust off that sexual harassment training.

At the end of July, the Biden administration’s Department of Labor (“DOL”) issued a final rule, effective September 28, 2021, that will rescind the Trump administration’s “Joint Employer Status under the Fair Labor Standards Act” rule, first published in January 2020.