April 25, 2023

President Biden Signs Sweeping Executive Order For Care

The Biden administration has just announced a comprehensive and far-reaching executive order intended to improve care for all Americans. The order comprises a total of 50 directives aimed at nearly every cabinet-level federal agency, including the Departments of Defense and Education, Veterans Affairs, and the Office of Personnel Management.

The order seeks to improve working conditions and wages for myriad care providers, such as home care workers and early childhood educators as well as promote affordability and accessibility of care for all working Americans. This is especially welcome news for home care providers, who experience little job security, outright wage theft, and poor working conditions. It also has the potential to alleviate childcare pressures which have only increased since the outset of the pandemic.

Another facet of this order, which has significant ramifications for our practice and area of expertise is the directive aimed at the Department of Labor, which is being tasked with creating a sample contract for home care providers. This contract will enumerate both parties’ rights and responsibilities, allowing them to understand and more effectively comply with the law.

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The Week in FFCRA Complaints: Yet More Wrongful Terminations and Retaliation

August 10, 2020
Leave
Disability Discrimination
As we noted last week, employers seem not to have gotten the message on paid leave under FFCRA and the two notable cases that came up this week both involve employer retaliation and wrongful termination against employees who were protected under FFCRA.

The Berke-Weiss Law Weekly Roundup: Black Pregnancy in New York City and School Reopening Reversals

August 10, 2020
Race Discrimination
Pregnancy Discrimination
We’re now a week into the expiration of the enhanced unemployment benefits of the CARES Act and the news is not good. Congress and the White House remain at least a trillion of dollars apart on a new deal, with the Senate GOP split, though their prized bit of the CARES Act, the corporate bailout, did not have an expiration date, unlike those parts aimed at protecting workers, such as the PUA and eviction moratoriums. Thus, with depressing predictability, there were a spate of alarming stories this week echoing the fears that tenant unions and activists have been voicing for months: by ending employment relief we are hurtling toward a cliff, over which lies massive, nationwide evictions.

The Week in FFCRA Complaints: Employers Do Not Seem to Understand Mandated Worker Protections

July 31, 2020
Leave
Disability Discrimination
t is starting to seem, from our perspective, that either employers have not been made sufficiently aware of the leave entitled to workers under the FFCRA or that they are willing to risk a lawsuit for wrongful termination.

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