The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) have issued guidance to help employers monitor and respond to the spread of novel coronavirus (COVID-19).

The Families First Coronavirus Act (H.R. 6201) was passed by the U.S. House of Representatives in the early hours of March 14, 2020. The bipartisan legislation would extend employee sick leave benefits, expand access to free testing, and provide $1 billion in food aid to vulnerable Americans.

1. The Trump Administration announced its intent to re-nominate National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) member Marvin Kaplan and former member Lauren McFerran. President Donald Trump is preparing a nomination package to ensure the NLRB does not lose its quorum this summer. Currently, the NLRB is operating with only three members, the minimum it needs to maintain a quorum. Member Marvin Kaplan’s term is set to expire in August 2020, and his departure would leave the NLRB without a quorum.

It is time to start preparing for the upcoming H-1B visa lottery, which begins April 1, 2020, and will be the first one to require an electronic registration for each case.

News of an outbreak of a new coronavirus first identified in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China raises issues for employers and employees about the appropriate workplace responses.

Welcome and thank you for your interest in the 2020: The Year Ahead for Employers and the 2019: California Year-End Summary.

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has announced it is implementing an electronic registration process in the next H-1B visa lottery. Employers seeking to file fiscal year 2021 H-1B cap-subject petitions must first electronically register and pay a $10 fee for each electronic registration they submit to USCIS.

The “Respect Graduate Student Workers Act,” introduced by Representative Mark Pocan (D-Wis.), aims to classify graduate student workers as employees and ensure them “full labor protections” under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA).

1. The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has clarified its standard for evaluating the legality of employers’ facially neutral policies, rules, or handbook provisions. LA Specialty Produce Co., 368 NLRB No. 93 (Oct. 8, 2019). Overturning the Obama-NLRB standard, the NLRB in Boeing Co. provided a roadmap for how it will analyze the legality of employer work rules and policies. As it reviews them, the NLRB will place rules in one of three categories. Rules in Category 1 are lawful to maintain. Rules in Category 2 require individualized scrutiny.

The U.S. Supreme Court has heard oral argument on whether the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) lawfully terminated the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) Policy. The Court’s decision in a consolidated case (Homeland Security v. Regents of the University of California, Nos. 18-587, 588, and 589) will affect more than 700,000 individuals who came to the U.S. as children without proper documentation.