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It’s 9 o’clock on Monday morning: do you know where your workers are?
What middle manager is clocking from a fishing hut in Wisconsin Northwoods and what brand from Airbnb in Malibu? If a zoom background says Fiji, are you sure it’s not there? U.S. employment lawyers say companies could face legal and regulatory issues if they don’t know where the “home” of “working from home” is.
Do they withhold income taxes for the right jurisdictions? Are they complying with the appropriate minimum wage laws? Are they complying with the rules of sick leave where the employee currently lives? California workers are entitled to reimbursement for work equipment, so the boss must purchase enough Aeron chairs for those working in jurisdictions that require seats in the home office.
As employers prepare for post-pandemic employment (sometimes working from a puppy store and sometimes from a cubicle), they may have to comply with the law not just where it is located. the cubicle, but also where the puppy tent is placed. And they must ensure that return to the office is managed without discriminating against employees based on age, gender, or disability. Women have been much stronger blow in the pandemic recession, men and employers could risk claiming gender discrimination if they do not allow some working women to continue working from home, employment lawyers predict.
“I anticipate an explosion of litigation,” said Melissa Raphan, former head of labor and labor practice at the Dorsey & Whitney law firm. seminars. He thinks the “big return” would mean employers face new types of claims in the workplace, and many more, once the courts are resumed in person. “Once the pause button is released, we will see that the lawyers of the very active plaintiffs return to what they consider their rightful place in the courts,” he said.
U.S. courts now only handle lawsuits arising from the early days of the pandemic. Rigoberto Ruiz lost his wife Martha to Covid-19 during the lockout about a year ago, and is suing his businessman ConAgra Brands, blaming him for his death. Ruiz says he hired Covid-19 because of an outbreak at the Birds Eye frozen vegetable processing plant in Darien, Wisconsin, where he worked, and that he gave it to his wife. He claims the plant “did not follow CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) guidelines and general medical advice” on coronavirus and “did not implement any policy to ensure that employees wore masks to the plant.”
ConAgra told the Financial Times that it does not comment on any pending litigation, but a spokesman sent a list of “preventive measures” implemented to “keep people safe and healthy throughout the company,” including “the use of masks.” and shields “. The company, which says it operated when other companies closed because it was considered “an essential and critical infrastructure,” says it has immunity from liability under federal law. Public preparedness and emergency preparedness law. Adam Pulver, a lawyer for the consumer rights group Public Citizen, which is involved in some post-Covid workplace litigation, argues that the law does not cover companies like ConAgra.
Perhaps surprisingly, one of the areas unlikely to lead to much litigation, according to employment attorneys, is coronavirus vaccines. The U.S. Commission for Equal Employment has made it clear that employers can demand it workers to be vaccinated. But according to Becky Frankiewicz, president of ManpowerGroup North America, a personnel company, only 4 percent of American companies planned to do so.
He predicts that American employers will be guided less by the law and more by the competence of workers when deciding how to manage return to work. “The role of American companies is widened more than any of us have ever seen, ”she said in areas ranging from racial equity to voting rights. “The business landscape has changed for what workers want, not for what the law requires. It’s a tectonic shift.”
And if the corporate United States does not meet these new high standards, there are always lawsuits. The pandemic could still turn out to be a full-fledged act for American lawyers.
The writer is a columnist who contributes to FT
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