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June 18, 2020
On June 28, 2020, Governor Newsom directed bars to close in five counties on the state’s watch list: Fresno, Kern, Kings, Los Angeles, and Tulare. These join two other counties – Imperial and San Joaquin – with bars already subject to such mandatory closings. The state has recommended bar closings in eight other counties.
We count 19 counties which have rescinded their local orders to follow Sacramento’s statewide guidances: • Colusa • Calaveras • El Dorado • Fresno • Inyo • Kern • Kings • Lake • Mono • Nevada • Placer • Riverside • San Benito • San Bernardino • San Luis Obispo • Santa Cruz • Stanislaus • Tehama and • Yolo.
As of July 10, California counties and cities with stay at home orders in place include:
Alameda County’s Hits Pause on Reopening press release
Thanks again to our legal assistant Daniska Coronado for these continuing updates. Please use the above links and other online resources for further developments. Requirements of varying strictness continue to change frequently, municipality-by-municipality.
See also:
For more information about coronavirus employment issues, contact Tim Bowles, Cindy Bamforth orHelena Kobrin.
Tim Bowles
Daniska Coronado
July 11, 2020
California’s UpdatedCoronavirus ResponseCity or CountyEffective DateExpiration DateResourcesAlameda CountyBerkeleyContra Costa CountyCulver CityHumboldt CountyImperial CountyLong BeachLos Angeles CityLos Angeles County(All unincorporated areas and cities in LA County except for Long Beach and Pasadena) Marin CountyMendocino CountyMerced CountyMonterey CountyNapa CountyPalm SpringsPasadenaSacramento CountySan Diego CountySan Francisco City and CountySan Joaquin CountySanta Clara CountySan Mateo CountySanta Barbara CountySolano CountySonoma CountySutter CountyTulare CountyVentura CountyYuba County
May 1, 2020
May 1, 2020
April 30, 2020
March 30, 2020
April 17, 2020
March 29, 2020
March 22, 2020
April 7, 2020
April 7, 02020
March 18, 2020
March 24, 2020
March 21, 2020
April 19, 2020
March 19, 2020
April 2, 2020
April 1, 2020
March 26, 2020
April 16, 2020
April 10, 2020
Until further notice
March 27, 2020
March 20, 2020
May 3, 2020
March 31, 2020
Welcome to our new pandemic-driven world, evolving daily.
On March 19, 2020, California Governor Gavin Newson issued Executive Order N-33-20 requiring all California residents until further notice to stay at home or place of residence except for those in businesses and functions deemed essential to 16 federally-designated “critical infrastructure” sectors. See, Essential Critical Infrastructure Workers. In essence, the governor directed:
“The supply chain must continue, and Californians must have access to such necessities as food, prescriptions and health care. When people need to leave their homes or places of residence, whether to obtain or perform the functions above, or to otherwise facilitate authorized necessary activities, they should at all times practice social distancing.”
The state is constantly updating its “COVID Response – Stay Home Except for Essential Needs FAQs” for further guidance.
Many California cities and counties have implemented similar – and in many instances progressively stricter — “Safer at Home” or “Shelter in Place” orders. To our knowledge, there is as-yet no comprehensive online resource listing all of these. As of April 3:
Los Angeles County’s Addendum to Safer at Home order.
Effective March 25, 2020, Los Angeles County’s Department of Public Health issued rules for “isolation” (people infected or “likely” infected [showing symptoms]) and another set for quarantine (people in “close contact” [within six feet for more than ten minutes or in direct contact, e.g. sneeze, cough, sweat]) with someone infected or likely infected.
As applies to your locale, it is important to click the above links for updates, as requirements, dates, and information are changing frequently.
See also:
For more information about these laws or other employment issues related to coronavirus, contact Tim Bowles, Cindy Bamforth or Helena Kobrin.
Helena Kobrin
Daniska Coronado
April 3, 2020
California’s Coronavirus Response Statewide and Local April 3, 2020 Current StatusCity or County Effective DateExpiration Date ResourcesAlameda CountyAmador CountyBerkeleyCalaveras CountyColusa CountyContra Costa CountyEl Dorado CountyFresno CountyHumboldt CountyImperial CountyInyo CountyKern CountyLong BeachLos Angeles CityLos Angeles County (All unincorporated areas and cities in LA County except for Long Beach and Pasadena) Marin CountyMerced CountyMono CountyMonterey CountyNapa CountyPalm SpringsPasadenaPlacer CountySacramento CountySan Benito CountySan Bernardino CountySan Diego CountySan Francisco City and CountySan Joaquin CountySan Luis Obispo CountySanta Clara CountySan Mateo CountySanta Cruz CountySolano CountySonoma CountyStanislaus CountyTehama CountyVentura CountyYolo County
We are entering week seven fromGovernor Newson’s March 18 orderrequiring all California residents to stay at home or place of residence until further notice. Businesses and functions deemed essential to16 federally-designated “critical infrastructure” sectorsare excepted. The state is regularly updating “COVID Response – Stay Home Except for Essential Needs FAQs” for further guidance.
We are entering week seven from Governor Newson’s March 18 order requiring all California residents to stay at home or place of residence until further notice. Businesses and functions deemed essential to 16 federally-designated “critical infrastructure” sectors are excepted. The state is regularly updating “COVID Response – Stay Home Except for Essential Needs FAQs” for further guidance.
The governor has specified six indicators to warrant modification of the March 18 order:
Since our April 17 listing, we count five more California counties and one city joining those which have implemented similar – and in many instances progressively stricter — “Safer at Home,” “Shelter in Place” or “Stay Well at Home” orders. Sutter and Yuba counties have issued a joint order, effective May 4, phasing out their previous restrictions. To our knowledge, and as of May 1:
Imperial County’s addendum to Safer at Home order
Palm Springs’s supplementary order
Pasadena’s supplementary order
Riverside County’s press release
San Diego County’s press release
Thanks to our legal assistant Daniska Coronado for this continuing compilation. There appears to be no other attempted comprehensive statewide listing readily available online.
Perhaps there is good reason for this. We cannot confirm this collection is complete or will even still be current by the beginning of the coming week. As applies to your locale, please use the above links and other online resources for updates. Requirements of varying strictness continue to change frequently, municipality-by-municipality.
See also:
For more information about these laws or other employment issues related to coronavirus, contact Tim Bowles, Cindy Bamforth or Helena Kobrin.
Tim Bowles
Daniska Coronado
May 1, 2020
“Science is organized knowledge. Wisdom is organized life.” Emmanuel Kant
“Science is organized knowledge. Wisdom is organized life.” Emmanuel Kant
Once upon a time (not too) long ago, our current of state business and workplace hibernation was unimaginable. As management plans for return to full operation, best practice in whatever the form – letter, notice posting, policy – will acknowledge a new definition of normal, welcoming “respiratory etiquette,” “hand hygiene,” “personal protective equipment” (PPE), and “effective social distancing” into daily interchange.
The Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918-1919 infected some 500 million people – about one-third of the world’s population – and killed an estimated 50 million, more by far than perished in the World War I horrors that preceded it and in the World War II slaughters, combined. The Spanish Flu came in three waves of varying intensity that correlated directly with preventative measures taken. With no vaccine to protect against influenza infection and no antibiotics to treat secondary bacterial infections, globally uncoordinated control efforts were limited to isolation, quarantine, good personal hygiene, use of disinfectants, and limitations of public gatherings.
That flu’s two major recurrences over some 18 months should impart wisdom enough for adequate COVID-19 precautions even after any upcoming “all clear.”
California requires all employers to adopt and maintain a written injury and illness prevention program (IIPP). With aid of Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) COVID-19 standards, new and expanded IIPP standards might well include:
● Standards for Maintaining a Healthy Work Environment: These could start with a thorough professional disinfection prior to a workplace reopening. Executives should also explore hiring a professional safety consultant for a one-time engagement to make sure the workplace is properly configured to minimize risk of virus outbreak.
Management should consider appointing a staff point person to oversee all pandemic-related programs and actions.
Standards should include sound respiratory etiquette, hand hygiene, and adequate social distancing for all employees and others present at the worksite as well as an intensified routine of ongoing cleaning and disinfection.
Following the example of food stores and other outlets that have stayed open through the pandemic, an employer should consider marking floors with one-way arrows to limit close physical proximity in frequently-used aisles and hallway. It could also be sound practice to enhance separations by plexiglass between cubicles or workstations, removing some of the chairs from the lunchroom, and so forth.
● Standards to Prevent the Pandemic’s Return: Overlapping with environmental actions, management must adequately incorporate federal and applicable state and local health prevention protocols as those continue to evolve. A sufficiently educated workforce can help limit recurrence to a minimum.
An employer must judge and clearly document its adequate screening procedures for workplace entry and reentry. Options include questionnaires for entering personnel and visitors, required negative COVID-19 tests, temperature taking, symptoms reporting and continued isolation and quarantine actions. See, When the Show Must Go On; Key Protection Protocols for an Essential Industry Employee’s COVID-19 Diagnosis/Symptoms.
● Standards to Promote Productivity: Perhaps more important than ever, employers should consider incentives for rewarding production and initiative. Management also ought to reiterate its anti-discrimination, harassment and retaliation policies, e.g., pandemic-fueled racial or national origin hostility will not be tolerated.
Good practice would include updated contact information for all personnel. Employers should consider in advance what to do with employees who want to continue teleworking out of fear or just out of personal preference.
Management must also maintain flexible leave and other policies to accommodate workers experiencing the ongoing effects of the pandemics. See, Federal Coronavirus Workplace Relief; New Paid Sick Leave, Family Leave And Tax Credits Effective April 2, 2020)
These points are of course not intended as comprehensive. Government has undertaken to address particular conditions for particular industries. See, e.g. OSHA’s COVID-19 Guidance for the Construction Workforce; COVID-19 Guidance for the Manufacturing Industry Workforce; COVID-19 Guidance for the Package Delivery Workforce; and COVID-19 Guidance for Retail Workers. Ultimately, a company’s scope and degree of such new standards depend heavily on its operations and circumstances.
See also:
Our firm is helping its employer clients develop the policies and protocols needed to match these extraordinary times. For more information, contact Tim Bowles, Cindy Bamforth or Helena Kobrin.
Tim Bowles
April 30, 2020
April 30, 2020
April 30, 2020
May 4, 2020 (phased reopening)
May 16, 2020
April 16, 2020
May 3, 2020
May 10, 2020
May 22, 2020
May 1, 2020
March 22, 2020
April 7, 2020
March 24, 2020
June 8, 2020
May 13, 2020
May 9, 2020
March 31, 2020
May 7, 2020
April 10, 2020
Until further notice
May 8, 2020
May 4, 2020
May 31, 2020
April 29, 2020
If anyone cares to count, today, May 15, is Day 55 and the beginning of California’s stay at home directives Week Nine. The Public Health Director’s latest statewide order (May 7) sets out “California’s path forward from the initial [March 19] ‘Stay-at-Home’ Order in California’s Pandemic Roadmap” in four phases: Stage 1: safety and preparation; Stage 2: reopening of lower-risk workplaces and other spaces; Stage 3: reopening of higher-risk workplaces and other spaces; and Stage 4: finally an easing of final restrictions leading to the end of the stay at home order.
The May 7 order announces the gradual movement of the entire state from Stage l to Stage 2, with procedure for the state’s 58 counties to accelerate their transition. At our last count, 21 counties have announced such ability. We also count 14 counties which have rescinded their local orders in order to follow just the statewide guidances: • Colusa, • Calaveras, • El Dorado, • Stanislaus, • Inyo, • Kern, • Kings, • Lake, •Nevada, • Placer, • Riverside, • San Benito, • San Bernardino, and • Tehama.
Nevertheless, the majority of counties and numerous major cities continue to have local orders in place, many with rules more restrictive than the state’s. To our knowledge, and as of May 15:
Palm Springs’s supplementary order
Pasadena’s supplementary order
Thanks again to our legal assistant Daniska Coronado for this continuing compilation. There continues to be no other attempted comprehensive statewide listing readily available online.
As counties continue to rely on their particular data, we can be sure that requirements of varying strictness continue to change frequently, local jurisdiction-by-local jurisdiction.
See also:
For more information about these laws or other employment issues related to coronavirus, contact Tim Bowles, Cindy Bamforth or Helena Kobrin.
Tim Bowles
Daniska Coronado
May 15, 2020
“Safer at Home” Moving to Stage Two, Phased Reopening City or County Effective DateExpiration Date ResourcesAlameda CountyBerkeleyContra Costa CountyCulver CityFresno CityFresno CountyHumboldt CountyImperial CountyLong BeachLos Angeles CityLos Angeles County(All unincorporated areas and cities in LA County except for Long Beach and Pasadena) Marin CountyMendocino CountyMerced CountyMono CountyMonterey CountyNapa CountyPalm SpringsPasadenaSacramento CountySan Diego CountySan Francisco City and CountySan Joaquin CountySan Luis Obispo CountySanta Clara CountySan Mateo CountySanta Barbara CountySanta Cruz CountySolano CountySonoma CountySutter CountyTulare CountyVentura CountyYolo CountyYuba County
Perhaps to dream but whether full business revival is prompt or eventual, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) today issuedexpanded pandemic-related guidelines for screening returni...
Perhaps to dream but whether full business revival is prompt or eventual, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) today issued expanded pandemic-related guidelines for screening returning employees.
As covered in Infection Protection, What Employers Can Ask in a Pandemic (March 25), the EEOC has loosened many of its normal-time Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) restrictions against employer intrusions into worker illness symptoms and medical care.
Symptomatic Workers Stay Home: Thus, by the EEOC’s “Pandemic Preparedness in the Workplace and the Americans with Disabilities Act,” management for example may send a worker home if displaying or disclosing any COVID 19-related symptoms (e.g., fever, chills, cough, shortness of breath, or sore throat). It is irrelevant that the employee may have no more than an allergy or common cold.
Employers may also apply this principle for people returning. Yet, it’s one thing to simplistically request “symptom free, please” (definitely not a best practice) and quite another to easily find consensus among the myriad federal agencies when a COVID-19 infected or suspected person is considered no longer contagious. However, Los Angeles County Department of Public Health (LACDPH) “Home Isolation Instructions” offer:
“Stay home until at least 7 days have passed after your symptoms first appeared AND at least 3 days after you have recovered. Recovery means that your fever is gone for 72 hours without the use of fever-reducing medications and your respiratory symptoms (e.g. cough, shortness of breath) have improved.”
Management May Require COVID 19 Testing to Enter Workplace: The EEOC now advises that employers may administer a mandatory “test to detect the presence of the COVID-19 virus” to employees “before permitting them to enter the workplace.” While across-the-boards medical testing is only occasionally justified in normal times, the agency is greenlighting such pandemic assessment as a workplace health and safety necessity. The EEOC leaves it to business management to “ensure that the tests are accurate and reliable” and suggests consulting the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for guidance in turn. A search of the FDA’s online COVID-19 FAQs shows that agency is scrambling:
“Q: Is there a test for COVID-19?
“[FDA Answer]: Yes, there are tests for COVID-19. Though there is currently no FDA-approved or cleared test for COVID-19, the FDA has issued several Emergency Use Authorizations (EUAs). During public health emergencies declared under [law], the FDA is able to issue EUAs when certain criteria are met that allows for the use and distribution of potentially life-saving medical products to diagnose, treat, or prevent the disease, which can include diagnostic tests.”
As with previous scourges such as Ebola (2014-present), testing will become more assured and FDA-approved as more is known about COVID-19. For the time being, management best practices should include adequate research to confirm that any test used is FDA-recognized. Employers must maintain all test results confidential, included in the separate health information files for respective workers.
Employers Permitted to Take Employee Temperatures Daily: The EEOC has also relaxed its usual-times prohibition of blanket temperature taking as a medical examination in violation of worker privacy. Until further notice however, the “gloves are on” for reliable temperature taking of every employee on arrival to the workplace, with individuals sent home if displaying any fever and with all information preserved as confidential,.
Employers Should Develop an Overall Screening Plan: The EEOC advises that employers may continue the above extraordinary measures as long as the pandemic poses a “direct threat” as “based on the best available objective medical evidence.” As the backside of the COVID-19 curve becomes more evident, public health authorities are likely to take a gradual, trial-period approach to reversing their currently strict “stay home” directives. Management best practices should include transitional policies consistent with these developments, including the EEOC’s return to its tighter pre-pandemic restrictions.
See also:
Our firm is currently helping many employer clients to develop critical policies and procedures that enable continued or resumed operations while protecting worker health and safety in this extraordinary time. For more information, contact Tim Bowles, Cindy Bamforth or Helena Kobrin.
Tim Bowles
April 23, 2020
Expanding Federal Post-Pandemic Guidelines for Safeguarding Returning Personnel
Government Pandemic Defense
Government Pandemic Defense
Monrovia, Liberia
April 17, 2020
As much of the U.S. begins to dig out after months of pandemic-inspired “hibernation,” many of us resume reach to the wider world. My attention returns to Liberia and Sierra Leone and our firm’s support of Applied Scholastics International (APS) and its African Literacy Campaign (ALC). See, My True Pay (January 16, 2020).
We launched ALC’s 2020 phase in February only to collide with the “stay in place” directives of nearly every national and state government in the northern hemisphere, including all West African countries. Liberia and Sierra Leone have been particularly sensitive to COVID-19’s potential consequences from the havoc Ebola created in that region in 2014-2015.
While Ebola reportedly took the lives of some 4,800 Liberians (out of 11,300 deaths in the region), the current pandemic’s public health impact has been relatively light. With a population of some 5,000,000, Liberia reportedly counts 269 documented COVID-19 cases, with 242 recovered and 27 deceased. See, Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center, nation-by-nation map.
The Liberian government’s lock down applied since April 10 to flatten the pandemic’s curve so significantly has been well-beyond anything Americans have experienced, including a national militarily enforced curfew, 3 p.m. – 6 a.m., daily. For example, armed soldiers have deployed to shut down open markets, the country’s lifeblood.
As here, all Liberian schools have been shut for many weeks. (Ebola shut the schools there for well over a year in 2014-2015.)
If halting COVID-19’s progress wasn’t enough, the region’s seasonal rains blew off a large portion of ALC partner Global Cares Mission Academy’s roof in mid-April. (Half of Global Cares 300 students are orphans.)
Ironically, we launched the ALC in June, 2014, the week Ebola came to Monrovia. Then, as now, the campaign stands as a significant player in recovery from the impact of these bone-deep disruptions. Accordingly, we have devoted 2020 ALC donations to:
With our donors’ continuing help, Applied Scholastics and the ALC are in Liberia and West Africa to stay; now helping to protect student, family and faculty health; hopefully soon to assist in the meaningful and swift recovery of education region-wide.
All support is welcome through our GoFundMe site: https://www.gofundme.com/f/african-literacy-campaign-2020.
Thank you. So much more to come!
Tim Bowles
May 28, 2020
Applied Scholastics Relief
Educate West Point
May 20, 2020
Facing COVID-19’s unfolding (sur)realities, LA City, LA County, Pasadena and Riverside County, among other local California public health authorities, have ordered that wear-a-mask and six-foot distan...
Facing COVID-19’s unfolding (sur)realities, LA City, LA County, Pasadena and Riverside County, among other local California public health authorities, have ordered that wear-a-mask and six-foot distance “recommendations” are now mandatory whenever possible for workers at essential businesses.
Effective April 10, a City of Los Angeles Worker Protection Order requires all workers from legally operating businesses to “wear face coverings over their noses and mouths while performing their work.” This LA City order requires employers to provide “fabric coverings, such as scarves and bandanas” to be discarded properly if single use or washed at least once daily if not. It also mandates that customers and visitors wear masks and permits such businesses to deny access to any who do not. Those businesses must also facilitate employee hand washing or sanitizer use at least every 30 minutes, as well as supply proper, sanitized restrooms, and cleaning products. Additionally, the LA City order requires all such businesses to implement social distancing for employees, as well as customers and visitors.
The LA City Order goes further: by midnight April 15, 2020 essential businesses must adopt and post near their entrances a “Social Distancing Protocol” for every facility they operate, a sample provided in Appendix A to the order.
Referencing that same Appendix A, Los Angeles County through an April 10 revised Safer-at-Home Order has the same notice posting requirement, as does Pasadena, through its April 11 Revised Order for Control of COVID-19. Affected employers also must give copies of that Social Distancing Protocol to their employees and furnish implementation evidence of that applicable order if any authorities inquire.
LA County’s and Pasadena’s orders mandate that essential businesses provide cloth face coverings to employees and contractors if their “duties require close contact with other employees and/or the public,” and define close contact as “within 6 feet of someone else for at least 10 minutes.” They require members of the public entering a business to wear face coverings as well.
Riverside County’s amended April 6, 2020 Order requires that all operating essential businesses identify and adopt needed measures to “implement social distancing.” The county now requires: “All persons, including Essential Workers, shall wear face coverings, such as scarves (dense fabric without holes), bandanas, neck gaiter, or other fabric face coverings.” The Riverside Order also discourages non-medical use of “Personal Protective Equipment . . . such as N95 masks.”
These orders also variously require measures such as limiting number of public entering a business, marking six-foot intervals when lines will form, providing sanitizing products at entrances, regular disinfecting of “high-touch surfaces,” and other steps to prevent spread of COVID-19.
Any businesses whose employees are required to wear face coverings at work must either supply the coverings or reimburse the cost of the face coverings as a business expense.
The only thing constant on this largely uncharted legal landscape is change. We will shortly bring you further local “flatten the curve” updates statewide.
See also:
For more information about these laws or other employment issues related to coronavirus, contact Tim Bowles, Cindy Bamforth or Helena Kobrin.
Helena Kobrin
April 16, 2020
Essential Workers Must Cover Up and Stay Six Feet Apart
The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES Act) protects small business from COVID-19’s economic impact. Section 1102 of the Act created the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) to help e...
The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES Act) protects small business from COVID-19’s economic impact. Section 1102 of the Act created the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) to help employers keep their workers on payroll. Qualifying PPP loans may be forgiven up to the full principal amount. See also, COVID-19 Safety Nets (April 14, 2020)
On June 5, 2020, President Trump signed the Paycheck Protection Program Flexibility Act of 2020 (Flexibility Act) providing these modified PPP provisions:
On June 17, 2020, the Small Business Administration (SBA) issued a revised user-friendly PPP loan forgiveness application implementing the Flexibility Act modifications, as well as a simplified form for borrowers that: (i) are self-employed and have no employees; or (ii) did not reduce the compensation of their employees by more than 25 percent and did not reduce the number or hours of their employees; or (iii) experienced reductions in business activity as a result of COVID-19 health directives and did not reduce employee compensation by more than 25 percent.
Employers should use the loan money for the reasons indicated in the CARES Act, clearly document the use of all PPP funds, fill out all forms truthfully and accurately, and consult with a CPA or other tax advisor as needed.
Additional Resources:
For more information, please contact Tim Bowles, Cindy Bamforth or Helena Kobrin.
Cindy Bamforth
June 25, 2020
PPP Loan Forgiveness Clarified and Expanded