On Friday, April 17, 2020, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) updated its guidance on COVID-19 issues and equal employment opportunity (EEO) laws.  The easy to read Q&A format is necessary reading for essential employers whose physical workspaces remain open, and for employers contemplating re-opening plans or personnel changes.  The EEOC’s guidance clarifies that EEO laws, such as the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), continue to apply during the pandemic, while recognizing that these laws should not interfere with applicable safety guidelines issued by the CDC and other agencies.  Recent guidance addresses the following issues:
Continue Reading EEOC Releases Updated COVID-19 Guidance (Updated as of April 23, 2020)

Effective April 20, 2020 at 8:00 p.m., employees in the workplace are required to wear a face mask or cloth face covering. Governor Lamont issued this directive as part of Executive Order No. 7BB, which also requires individuals in public to “cover their mouth and nose with a mask or cloth face-covering” when a “safe social distance of approximately six feet from every other person” cannot be maintained. Connecticut follows New York’s lead once again, as New York previously implemented a substantively identical order.
Continue Reading Connecticut Updates Safe Workplace Rules to Require Masks In the Workplace

On Friday, April 17, 2020, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) updated its guidance on COVID-19 issues and equal employment opportunity (EEO) laws.  The easy to read Q&A format is necessary reading for essential employers whose physical workspaces remain open, and for employers contemplating re-opening plans or personnel changes.  The EEOC’s guidance clarifies that EEO laws, such as the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), continue to apply during the pandemic while recognizing that these laws should not interfere with applicable safety guidelines issued by the CDC and other agencies.  Recent guidance addresses the following issues:
Continue Reading EEOC Releases Updated COVID-19 Guidance

On Tuesday, April 7, 2020, Governor Lamont issued Executive Order 7V, ordering Connecticut employers to take “additional protective measures to reduce the risk” of COVID-19 transmission. The Department of Economic and Community Development supplemented the Executive Order with its “Safe Workplace Rules for Essential Employers,” i.e., specific, “legally binding statewide rules prescribing such additional protective measures.”
Continue Reading Connecticut Issues Binding Safe Workplace Rules for Essential Employers

Effective at noon on March 24, 2020, Massachusetts will become the latest state to close non-essential businesses in the effort to slow the spread of COVID-19.  As covered here previously, Connecticut and New York issued substantially similar executive orders in days immediately prior.  The Massachusetts order identifies “essential” businesses, orders the closing of non-essential businesses

On Sunday March 22, 2020, the Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development released “legally binding guidance” concerning which businesses are “essential” for purposes of Governor Lamont’s March 20, 2020, Executive Order 7H (directing all businesses and nonprofit entities to utilize, to the maximum extent possible, any telecommuting or work from home procedures that they