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What I've Been Reading This Week


Some of us might be spending the day working while others might be enjoying the end of the week at a beach in Santa Monica (or somewhere in between.)  Regardless of where you find yourself, the below articles are worth a read to get caught up on some recent developments over the past few days.  We could likely devote a great deal of time to the coronavirus and how employers and employees alike are adapting to potential shutdowns in the workplace, but at a certain point, we would just be talking in circles about the matter.  While that article leads things off this week, there are a few other articles worth discussing, as highlighted below.

As always, below are a couple articles that caught my eye this week.


Trader Joe's Implements New Paid Sick Leave Plan to Help Employees Deal With Coronavirus

Kate Taylor and Hayley Peterson wrote an article earlier this week in which they noted that Trader Joe's has implemented a new paid sick leave plan that will allow workers to stay home if they feel under the weather and still be paid for their time off work.  (However, reimbursement of missed pay is left to the discretion of each employee's manager and an employee that misses a week or more of work will have their situation reviewed by HR.)  Regardless of whether some employees might use this policy to just take a day off (under the guise of being sick), it is commendable that the company is taking steps to encourage employees that are sick (or feel like they are coming down with something) to stay at home, rather than risk spreading anything to other employees or customers for that matter.  With fears over the coronavirus spreading over the past few weeks, I would not be surprised if other employers followed suit with similar amended paid leave plans or began to allow employees to work from home.



Perhaps this should have been the Paid Sick Leave Edition of this blog post, huh?  Readers might recall that several cities in Texas had previously approved local paid sick leave ordinances.  Business groups quickly scrambled to block implementation of these laws, with San Antonio's paid sick leave ordinance being one of the most contested.  (The San Antonio City Council had previously approved an ordinance that required employers in the city to provide paid sick leave in August of 2018.  That was postponed after a lawsuit was filed to block the ordinance's implementation.  An amendment to the ordinance was subsequently passed which would require paid sick leave for all full and part time employees, with these employees earning one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked.  A State District Judge held that the ordinance was preempted by a statewide minimum wage law and an injunction was granted back in November of 2019.  This appeal followed.)  With the ruling from the Fourth Court of Appeals, the injunction remains in place and a trial is currently set on the matter for September.  Stay tuned.


Two NLRB Members Re-Nominated For New Terms

Yesterday, the National Law Review noted that President Donald Trump had re-nominated National Labor Relations Board Members Lauren McFerran and Marvin Kaplan to new five year terms.  (NRLB Member McFerran was a President Barack Obama appointee; NLRB Member Kaplan was a President Trump nominee.)  Readers might be aware that the NLRB is made up of five Members, with two spots being reserved for the minority party (in this case, the Democrats.)  Currently, there are three Members on the NLRB:  Kaplan (whose term expires in August, which is why he has been re-nominated), Chairman John Ring, and William Emanuel.  NLRB Member Kaplan's term ended back in December.  While the NLRB only has three Members (comprised solely of President Trump nominees), there is a quorum which allows the NLRB to still issue decisions.

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