The Virginia Safety and Health Codes Board has voted to approve a Final Permanent Standard (Final Standard) related to COVID-19. It is anticipated that Governor Northam will soon approve the Final Standard, which sets forth health and safety requirements related to COVID-19 for all Virginia employers and is expected become effective on January 27, 2021.…
Read More »The District of Columbia City Council has enacted legislation banning the use of non-compete provisions in almost all employment agreements and workplace policies. Effective February 11, 2021, the Act does not contain any retroactivity provisions for non-compete agreements in existence before its effective date, but it does require employers to modify existing employment policies (as…
Read More »The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced last week that it was delaying the start of the 2020 tax filing season until February 12, at which time the agency will begin accepting and processing tax returns for 2020. Tax filing season usually begins in late January, but in deference to the recent passage of the latest…
Read More »As evidenced in some of the stories above, the Biden-Harris administration is going to be implementing many significant changes in labor and employment laws and regulations that will dramatically impact franchise owners across the country. To help you better prepare for those changes, the Coalition of Franchisee Associations (CFA) is sponsoring a webinar: Updates to…
Read More »In just over a week, DDIFO will sponsor the next program in our Wednesday Webinar Series. Training and Certifying Staff in a COVID World will be presented on February 3, 2021 from 2:00 – 3:00 PM EST. This important program will feature Nick Eastwood, President of Always Food Safe along with Dan Olk, Vice President…
Read More »The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) last week reported that average hourly earnings increased 0.4 percent from November to December 2020. The increase stems from an increase of 0.8 percent in hourly earnings coupled with a 0.4 percent rise in the Consumer Price Index (CPI). Year over year, average hourly earnings increased 3.7 percent…
Read More »Last week, the Small Business Administration (SBA) and the US Department of the Treasury announced that the Paycheck Protection Program will reopen next Tuesday, January 19, 2021 to all lenders. The SBA this week began opening the program in phases so as to better reach underserved and minority-owned small businesses with community financial institutions, minority…
Read More »President-elect Biden, who will be inaugurated as the nation’s 45th President on Wednesday, last night outlined another new COVID relief package which he will ask Congress to approve within hours of taking his oath of office. The proposal he is submitting will include $2000 stimulus checks for qualified Americans as well as automatic extensions of…
Read More »The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has announced that collections for the 2019 and 2020 EEO-1 Component 1 Data that was postponed in 2020 will begin in April 2021. In light of the coronavirus pandemic and the accompanying business shutdowns, data collection was postponed last year. In addition, a study was contracted for by…
Read More »Notwithstanding continuing unfulfilled promises of business liability shields from COVID lawsuits at the federal level, a number of additional states are now considering implementing their own liability shields at the state level. Currently, both Indiana and Florida are considering bills filed for the new legislative sessions that would provide a level of immunity from potentially…
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