Notwithstanding the above and other requirements of the Paycheck Protection Program, a serious effort is now underway in Washington to amend some of the provisions of the CARES Act. Specifically, the Coalition of Franchisee Associations (CFA) and other business allies in the Nation’s Capital are working to better educate Congress on the needs of the…
Read More »On Tuesday of this week, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) announced a new policy regarding inspections and enforcement during the coronavirus pandemic as well as the obligation of employers to record COVID-19 cases within their workforce. Beginning Monday, May 26, the agency will begin to resume the usual level of in-person inspections of…
Read More »The US Department of Labor (DOL) and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) earlier this month issued a Joint Rule extending certain time frames for group health plans and other welfare and pension plans. In accordance with this latest Rule, plans must disregard the period from March 1, 2020 until 60 days after the announced end…
Read More »As more states and locales around the country begin to re-open their economies or announce plans to do so, it is important that all businesses are aware not only of best practices, but some of the concerns on the flip side of that coin as well. As a case in point, the federal government, and…
Read More »In that same vein, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) last week released reopening guidelines broken down for specific industries – including restaurants. The 60-page guidance “Opening America Up Again”, which is available here as a pdf for download, includes instruction on how to scale-up operations, sanitation practices, social distancing procedures, health monitoring guidelines and…
Read More »A class action lawsuit was filed this week in Chicago against McDonalds alleging the company hasn’t acted sufficiently to protect its employees in the face of the coronavirus pandemic. If you take the longer view, you can see the allies lining up and checking the requisite boxes over the past few months to initiate such…
Read More »It’s an issue that’s seemingly been resolved more times than one can count since President Trump took office in 2017, but joint employer is still rearing its ugly head periodically – and this time at the state level. The effort in Colorado to codify the egregious joint employer standard from the Obama-era NLRB almost completely…
Read More »That famous quote by Oscar Wilde (“Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery that mediocrity can pay to greatness.”) seems to fit nicely when one reads the most recent SEC filings from Starbucks Corporation. Starbucks yesterday published an SEC note which was company CEO Kevin Johnson’s note to all Starbucks employees. In it, he essentially…
Read More »“Dunkin’ Runs Green!” could be the next catchphrase for the brand in light of its completing the difficult global transition it announced two years ago – switching its complete inventory from the iconic polystyrene foam cups to double-walled paper cups for all of its hot beverages. The new cups are certified to the Sustainable Forestry…
Read More »On Wednesday of this week, the Small Business Administration (SBA) posted its latest guidance/clarification on the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). The guidance was provided as Question 46 in the Department of the Treasury Q&A relating the PPP. You may recall as we advised you last week, the then-prevailing guidance stated that borrowers would have to…
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