Employment Law Notebook

As employers await the green light from their state lifting restrictions that closed their worksites or forced them to shift workers from working onsite to working from home, owners and managers can and should be brainstorming now about a return-to-work plan, and the policies and procedures needed to implement the plan. 

Many working parents who normally send their children to attend or work at a camp or other summer programs are contending with difficult decisions now that many camps and summer enrichment programs have announced closures due to COVID-19.  Employers should expect to receive many more requests for time off this summer from employees with children at home.

Sobel Co offered great tips for companies to consider when planning to return employees to worksites on a webinar for CFOS today.   Here are some of the helpful takeaways from Ken Brown, CFO of Coronet LED, Phil Orsi, COO of control Associates, Inc. and Alan Sobel and Brad Muniz of Sobel:

I have been asked more questions about unemployment benefits in the past month than in my entire time career as an employment attorney.  That's partly because so many more people are out of work than ever before but also because the state and federal government have significantly expanded access to unemployment benefits to cover more out of work scenarios, cover individuals not previously cover

Due to the Coronavirus (COVID-19), the Governor of New Jersey, New Jersey state legislature and the federal government have kept us employment lawyers on our toes this week as new laws affecting employers and employees have been rolled out daily and sometime multiple times a day.  It has been a whirlwind, exhausting week, following and reporting on the changes, packing up my office to work from

The New Jersey Department of Labor just released guidance on its website explaining what state provided and required benefits employees can obtain due to due to absence from work due to the coronavirus (COVID-19). This article will highlight these benefits.

Whether you are an employer or an employee, the Coronavirus is likely on your mind.

This could help NJ shift workers in service jobs with a vexing problem -- being required to work patchwork schedules and getting hours cut at the last minute.  However, compliance will be very difficult.  Many small employers would likely honor this in the breach: 

It’s understandable that employers want employees to come to work looking neat and professional.  But the New Jersey Division on Civil Rights just issued new Guidance that should prompt all New Jersey employers to examine whether such policies are discriminatorily affecting employees of a certain race or religion.  Concerned that employers’ policies on hairstyles might be discriminatorily affec