Blog Posts | Jackson Lewis

COVID-19Blog Posts

IRS Provides Relief for Retirement Plan Elections and Consents Required to be Notarized or Witnessed The Internal Revenue Service has relaxed spousal notarization and plan representative witness requirements in 2020 for retirement plan elections in IRS Notice 2020-42. The notice addresses the physical presence requirement for notarization or witnessing of certain plan elections and provides temporary relief permitting remote notarization and witnessing subject to certain requirements. For the period from... Continue Reading… June 5, 2020	OSHA Issues Guidance on Prevention of COVID-19 Cases at Construction Sites The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has issued guidance for construction industry employers to prevent spread of COVID-19. In addition to measures the agency suggests for all employers, the guidance includes a variety of preventive measures at construction sites, such as: Using Environmental Protection Agency-approved cleaning chemicals from List N or that have label... Continue Reading… June 4, 2020	Most Counties in California Now Permitted to Move to Accelerated Stage 2 Reopening At the beginning of May, California implemented a staged reopening for businesses closed due to the shelter in place orders resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. This plan, referred to as the “Resilience Roadmap” allowed for counties to apply for a variance if certain criteria set by the state public health officer are met. The variances... Continue Reading… June 4, 2020
San Francisco Releases Its Own Reopening Timeline As many California counties move into Stage 2 of the statewide reopening plan following the state’s stay-at-home order, San Francisco has developed its own phased plan for reopening businesses. Currently, under San Francisco’s plan, essential business, curbside retail, some supply chain businesses, and outdoor businesses are permitted to open. San Francisco businesses may verify that... Continue Reading… June 3, 2020	Expanding the Safe Harbor for (Certain) Electronic Disclosures We previously wrote about the Department of Labor’s proposed expansion of its safe harbor for electronic delivery of certain retirement plan disclosures required under ERISA. The wait is finally over, with publication of the final rule (the “New Rule”) helped along by the DOL’s desire to alleviate some of the “disclosure-related problems being reported by... Continue Reading… June 3, 2020	USCIS to Resume Premium Processing in Phases Premium processing will resume in stages according to USCIS. Cap-subject H-1B petitions will be included only in the last phase. June 1, 2020: USCIS will accept requests for premium processing for all eligible Form I-140 Immigrant Visa Petitions. EB1-C Multi-National Manager or Executive and EB2 National Interest Waiver petitions are not eligible for premium processing.... Continue Reading… June 2, 2020
New York Imposes New COVID-19 Standards on Dental Practices for Reopening Following Governor Andrew Cuomo’s announcement that dental practices across New York State may reopen to perform all dental care, the New York State Department of Health (DOH) has issued minimum safety and social distancing standards in its “Interim Guidance for Dentistry During the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency.” The Interim Guidance applies to all dental care,... Continue Reading… June 2, 2020	IRS Provides Further COVID-19 Relief Related to Postponed Deadlines for Time Sensitive Actions On May 28, 2020, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) released an advanced version of Notice 2020-35, which amplifies the relief it had previously provided from deadlines for certain time-sensitive actions. The relief offered by Notice 2020-35 is provided because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and is in addition to the relief provided by Notice 2020-18,... Continue Reading… June 2, 2020	Chicago City Council Passes COVID-19 Anti-Retaliation Ordinance Chicago’s City Council has passed an ordinance to protect employees from retaliation by their employers if they obey public health orders or orders of a healthcare provider to stay at home because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The ordinance was passed by the City Council on May 20, 2020. Read more. Continue Reading… June 2, 2020
COBRA Compliance Through a COVID-19 Lens Over the last few weeks, we have seen significant changes affecting COBRA compliance. Employers should contact their COBRA administrators to discuss the best practices in light of these developments, which include the Department of Labor’s publication of new model COBRA notices and COVID-19 notice and premium payment extensions. We have a helpful article that discusses... Continue Reading… June 1, 2020

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