Health Law Scan

Members of our labor and employment group published a LawFlash discussing the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) updates on its COVID-19 guidance, detailing its view of employer obligations under Title VII when evaluating religious objections to COVID-19 vaccination mandates and requests for accommodation based on pregnancy under the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Pregnancy Discrimination Act. These updates may be of interest to healthcare employers as they continue to navigate through vaccine mandates.

Members of our labor, employment and benefits team published a LawFlash covering Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s recently issued Executive Order No. GA-40 (EO GA-40), which purports to prohibit vaccine mandates, but in reality expands the scope of mandatory exemptions to such mandates.

In our latest Fast Break session and on the heels of recent announcements from the Biden-Harris administration and the US Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA’s) granting of full authorization for the Pfizer vaccine in August, we were joined by Dan Kadish, a Morgan Lewis labor and employment associate and one of the leaders of our Morgan Lewis COVID-19 vaccine task force, to discuss how these updates may impact employers in the healthcare industry.

Substantial change is imminent for key labor law issues commonly affecting healthcare entities. Healthcare employers utilize handbooks and rules, implement property access controls, and engage in human resources investigations, for instance. All these areas, and more, are poised for change with the new Biden-Harris administration National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) general counsel memorandum, highlighting a swath of legal issues where the general counsel will litigate test cases to change the law.

Members of our labor and employment and healthcare teams recently published a LawFlash covering the US Department of Justice’s (DOJ’s) definitive guidance which specifically concluded that “federal law does not prohibit public or private entities from imposing vaccination requirements for vaccines that are subject to emergency use authorizations from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.”

Our immigration team recently published a LawFlash analyzing the US Department of State’s July 2021 Visa Bulletin, which outlines per-country priority date cutoffs that regulate immigrant visa availability and the flow of adjustment of status application and consular immigrant visa application filings and approvals.

Members of our labor, employment, and benefits team have been busy providing analysis on continued updates to state COVID-19 rules and standards. We know these resources are valuable to readers of Health Law Scan, and we preview two recent LawFlashes that may be of particular interest to those operating in California and New York below.

Members of our labor, employment & benefits and healthcare teams recently published a LawFlash discussing the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA’s) updated COVID-19 guidance for employers. The long-awaited COVID-19 Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS) is effective as of June 10, 2021, but only applies to employers in healthcare and healthcare support services settings. Employers covered by the ETS have 14 days (from the date that the ETS is published in the Federal Register) to comply with most provisions, and 30 days (also from the date of publication in the Federal Register) to comply with the provisions related to physical barriers, ventilation, and training.

Members of our labor and employment and employment counseling teams recently published a LawFlash discussing the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s (EEOC’s) long-awaited update to its technical assistance guidance on COVID-19 and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the Rehabilitation Act, and other federal equal employment opportunity (EEO) laws.

Members of our labor and employment team have published resources highlighting updates to state mask guidance in California, Illinois, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Oregon, and Washington in alignment with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC’s) new guidance that allows fully vaccinated individuals to forgo masks and social distancing requirements in most indoor and outdoor locations.