In a unanimous 14 page decision issued on July 10, 2023, the Appellate Division of the State Board of Worker's Compensation held that the COVID-19 virus cannot constitute a compensable injury, as opposed to an Occupational Disease, unless it results naturally and unavoidably from an “identifiable physical occurrence,” such as a needle stick. Bonds v Atlanta Public Schools, ICMS Reference No. 21544083. Drew, Eckl & Farnham presented a brief and oral argument in the appeal on behalf of the Georgia Workers’ Compensation Association and the Group Funds Association, as Amicus Curiae. In the three years since the COVID pandemic, thousands of COVID claims have been filed under ... Continue Reading
City of Atlanta Adds New Protection for Gender Expression and Prohibits Discrimination Based on Criminal History
ATLANTA, December 8, 2022 — The City of Atlanta recently amended its existing anti-discrimination law to include protections based on both gender identity and the criminal history of job applicants and employees. Under existing city law, individuals who believe that they have been subject to employment discrimination can file complaints with the Atlanta Human Relations Commission. With this new amendment, the city added gender expression and criminal history as additional protected characteristics that could give rise to such a complaint. The amended ordinance still allows employers to make adverse employment decisions based on criminal history status if the criminal history is ... Continue Reading
OSHA Finally Ending Large Employer Mandate
On January 25, 2022, OSHA posted notice of its withdrawal of its large employer Vaccine Mandate. However, OSHA appears to continue to pursue a permanent COVID-19 standard. The OSHA website posted the following message: “The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration is withdrawing the vaccination and testing emergency temporary standard issued on Nov. 5, 2021, to protect unvaccinated employees of large employers with 100 or more employees from workplace exposure to coronavirus. The withdrawal is effective January 26, 2022. Although OSHA is withdrawing the vaccination and testing ETS as an enforceable emergency temporary standard, the agency ... Continue Reading
U.S. Supreme Court Blocks COVID-19 Vaccine ETS for Large Employers
On January 13, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a decision blocking OSHA from implementing the COVID-19 Vaccination or Testing Emergency Temporary Standard (the “ETS”) until a determination is issued on the legal challenges to the ETS. The ETS requires employers with 100 or more employees to require employees to either be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 or submit to weekly COVID-19 testing. In support of its decision to block the ETS, the Supreme Court stated that the legal challenges to the OSHA’s authority to impose the requirements contained in the ETS are likely to succeed. "This is no 'everyday exercise of federal power.' Although Congress has indisputably given OSHA the power ... Continue Reading
Georgia State Board of Workers’ Compensation Issues First Decision on COVID Exposure in Workplace
On January 5, 2022, The Georgia State Board of Workers’ Compensation has issued its first decision regarding a claim from COVID exposure at work, and denied benefits. The case was brought by the widower of an employee who worked in the control room of a jail, tested positive for COVID several weeks after an inmate tested positive, and eventually died three months later. After an evidentiary hearing, the Administrative Law Judge concluded: “I find that Employee’s job as a records technician in the jail without direct contact with inmates or the public (during the period in question) did not place her at risk of exposure to the global pandemic such that her employment was a proximate ... Continue Reading
REINSTATED – COVID-19 Vaccine Mandates for Private Employers with 100 or More Employees
On Friday, December 17, 2021, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit lifted the stay previously blocking the Emergency Temporary Standard (“ETS”) issued by the Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (“OSHA”) requiring all employers with at least 100 employees to ensure their employees are fully vaccinated or require any workers who remain unvaccinated to produce a negative test result on at least a weekly basis before coming to work. OSHA announced this week that it has implemented the ETS and expects covered employers to immediately begin taking steps to comply with its requirements. The ETS requires covered employers to develop, implement, and ... Continue Reading
OSHA ETS Update
While we await additional court action on the Vaccine/Testing ETS, OSHA has extended the comment period for the ETS until January 19, 2022. If you want to submit any comments to OSHA on the ETS, click on the link below.* *Please make sure to identify your comments with Docket No. OSHA-2021-0007. ... Continue Reading
OSHA Temporarily Suspends ETS Enforcement
On November 12, 2021, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit granted a motion to halt legal proceedings of OSHA's COVID-19 Vaccination and Testing Emergency Temporary Standard ("ETS"), published on November 5, 2021. The court ordered that OSHA "take no steps to implement or enforce" the ETS "until further court order." While OSHA remains confident in its authority to protect workers in emergencies, OSHA has suspended activities related to the implementation and enforcement of the ETS pending future developments in the litigation. For more information, click on the link below. ... Continue Reading
COVID-19 Vaccine Mandates for Private Employers With 100 or More Employees
On Thursday, September 9, 2021, President Joseph Biden announced the issuance of sweeping COVID-19 mandates that will apply to millions of employees. The announcement was part of the Biden administration’s “Path Out of the Pandemic”, a comprehensive national strategy to combat COVID-19. As part of the Path Out of the Pandemic strategy, President Biden announced that the Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (“OSHA”) was developing a rule requiring all employers with at least 100 employees to ensure their employees are fully vaccinated or require any workers who remain unvaccinated to produce a negative test result on at least a weekly basis before coming to ... Continue Reading
Vaccine Mandate Update
In September 2021, President Biden directed the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to develop a new Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS) to help combat the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. We anticipate that the ETS will be issued in mid-to-late October 2021. In addition to containing requirements for federal workers and certain federal contractors, the ETS will require private employers with more than 100 employees to require that their employees either be fully vaccinated – or subject to weekly testing. It is anticipated that the ETS will impact up to 80 million private sector employees. Employers will have 30 days from the date of issue to comply with the ETS, which ... Continue Reading