Beltway Legislative Updates July 2

Spring Regulatory Agenda Launched. Final week, the Buzz puzzled once we would possibly see the administration’s spring regulatory forecast. Nicely, the administration will need to have observed our remark, as a result of on June 30, 2020, it launched its Spring 2020 Unified Agenda of Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions. Beneath are among the highlights from the agenda and what stakeholders would possibly anticipate within the regulatory area for the subsequent few months. As all the time, needless to say these timelines are aspirational and certain replicate company timetables which will have been in place weeks and even months in the past.

U.S. Division of Labor (DOL)

Equal Employment Alternative Fee (EEOC)

An NPRM concerning the interplay between employer-sponsored wellness packages and the People with Disabilities Act and the Genetic Data Nondiscrimination Act is scheduled to be launched in July 2020.

Joint employer. By July 2020, the EEOC will concern proposed laws and steerage on what it means to be a joint employer underneath federal employment discrimination legal guidelines.

Conciliation. An NPRM to “revise current laws to reinforce the effectiveness of the conciliation course of and supply better readability for all stakeholders” is slated to concern in July 2020.

Nationwide Labor Relations Board (NLRB)

Illustration case guidelines. The NLRB was scheduled to concern two separate NPRMs in June 2020, referring to the Board’s illustration procedures.

Entry rule. In June 2020, the Board was scheduled to concern a proposal “to ascertain the requirements underneath the Nationwide Labor Relations Act [NLRA] for entry to an employer’s non-public property.”

Pupil/worker standing. In September 2020, the Board is slated to concern a closing rule “to ascertain the usual for figuring out whether or not college students who carry out providers at a non-public school or college in reference to their research are ‘staff’” underneath the NLRA.

Division of Homeland Safety—U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Companies (USCIS)

H-1B reform. In December 2020, USCIS is anticipated to concern a proposal to revise the definitions of “specialty occupation,” “employment,” and “employer-employee relationship,” in addition to make extra adjustments “designed to make sure employers pay applicable wages to H-1B visa holders.”

H-Four EAD. USCIS is forecasting that it’s going to concern a proposal in September 2020, to “take away from its laws” “sure H-Four dependent spouses of H-1B nonimmigrant staff” as a “class of aliens for eligibility for employment authorization.”

NLRB to Look at Contract Bar. In an order issued final week, the Nationwide Labor Relations Board mentioned that it’s going to evaluate its “contract bar” doctrine, which prohibits illustration elections throughout the lifetime of a collective bargaining settlement for as much as three years. Based on the NLRB’s “Define of Regulation and Process in Illustration Circumstances,” the contract bar is “supposed to afford the contracting events and the staff an inexpensive interval of stability of their relationship with out interruption and on the identical time to afford the staff the chance, at affordable occasions, to vary or remove their bargaining consultant.” The worker within the instantaneous case argues that the contract bar—which isn’t based mostly on the textual content of the NLRA (in contrast to the one-year election bar) however is a creature of NLRB jurisprudence—unnecessarily stifles worker free selection. The Board is anticipated to solicit stakeholder suggestions on the matter.

DOL Opines on Go away for Canceled Summer time Camps. As we progress into summer time, staff with kids whose summer time camps have been canceled because of the pandemic are undoubtedly scrambling to determine their childcare choices. The Households First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) could present a minimum of some aid in these conditions, as its paid go away provisions cowl conditions through which lined staff are unable to work or telework as a result of they need to care for a kid whose “place of care” (which incorporates summer time camps or comparable packages) is closed for COVID-19-related causes. In a Subject Help Bulletin (FAB) issued late final week, the WHD defined what kind of employee-provided data is enough to fulfill the documentation provisions of the statute. Pursuant to the FAB, apart from proof of enrollment within the camp, prior attendance on the camp, cost of a deposit, or placement on the waitlist might also be enough indicators that the camp or program would have been the place of care of an worker’s youngster had it not closed for COVID-19 associated causes.

OFCCP Points TRICARE Regulation. On July 1, 2020, OFCCP finalized its long-awaited TRICARE regulation. The regulation offers that OFCCP doesn’t have jurisdiction over well being care suppliers that take part in TRICARE. It alternatively offers such suppliers a nationwide curiosity exemption from OFCCP obligations and necessities. Suppliers with extra separate federal contracts will nonetheless stay topic to OFCCP jurisdiction. The regulation goes into impact on August 31, 2020.

USMCA Begins. On June 30, 2020, the not-so-cleverly-named United States-Mexico-Canada Settlement (USMCA) on commerce went into impact. Stephen Shore and Pietro Straulino-Rodriguez have the main points on what this implies for employers right here.

Paycheck Safety Program (PPP) Expires. On July 1, 2020, President Trump signed laws extending the PPP to August 8, 2020, (this system expired on June 30, 2020). There may be $130 billion within the fund that’s left unspent.

July Four PSA. As a public service announcement (PSA) to our readers, it’s possible you’ll need to rethink these disposable plates or napkins adorned with the U.S. flag that you simply’ve bought on your July Four cookout. Pursuant to federal regulation, the flag “shouldn’t be … printed or in any other case impressed on paper napkins or packing containers or something that’s designed for momentary use and discard.” Fortunately, this language is simply steered etiquette and never legally enforceable.