Under the American Rescue Plan Act (ARP), certain individuals known as assistance eligible individuals (AEIs) were eligible for a COBRA premium subsidy between April 1, 2021 and September 30, 2021.
On September 9, 2021, President Biden announced that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is developing a rule that will require all employers with 100 or more employees to ensure their workforce is fully vaccinated or require any unvaccinated employees to produce a weekly negative test in order to come to work.
The Pennsylvania Superior Court, in a case called Palmiter v. Commonwealth Health Systems, Inc., held that employees can sue their employer for discrimination based on their status as certified users of medical marijuana.
Starting October 1, 2021, applicants for Lawful Permanent Resident status in the U.S. (commonly known as Green Cards) are required to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
On August 20, 2021, the DOL published FAQs Part 49 announcing the extension of the compliance dates for a few – but far from all – of the new group health plan mandates under the Tri-Department transparency regulations and the Consolidated Appropriations Act (CAA).
On August 17, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed a civil enforcement action in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California against former Medivation Inc. executive, Matthew Panuwat.
Come November 1, 2021, U.S. companies doing business abroad will have yet another privacy law to think about – China’s Personal Information Protection Law (PIPL). China’s state media reported that the PIPL, which has been in development over the past year, was passed by China’s People’s Congress on August 20, 2021.
On August 18, 2021, President Biden announced that his administration will require Medicare and Medicaid-participant nursing homes to mandate COVID-19 vaccinations or risk losing Medicare and Medicaid funding.
The United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit recently limited the ability of plaintiffs to bring nationwide collective actions under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).
On August 13, 2021, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issued updated guidance to align with recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) changes to masking and testing recommendations for fully vaccinated individuals (Protecting Workers: Guidance on Mitigating and Preventing the Spread of COVID-19 in the Workplace | Occupational Safety and Health Administration (osha.gov)).
On August 5, a split Federal Circuit vacated the district court’s ruling of no induced infringement against Teva Pharmaceuticals (Teva) of a GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) patent and reinstated the jury’s $235 million patent infringement damages verdict. GlaxoSmithKline LLC v. Teva Pharmaceuticals USA, Inc., No. 2018-1976 (Fed. Cir. Aug. 5, 2021) at 4.
In May 2021, Indiana University announced that in order to attend on-campus classes and activities, students must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
On June 23, 2021, the Supreme Court of the United States issued a decision that limits a public school’s ability to regulate student speech that occurs off-campus at the K-12 level.
On April 27, 2021, President Biden issued an Executive Order raising the minimum wage for federal contractors from $10.95 per hour to $15.00 per hour, effective January 30, 2022.
