DOL Publishes the “Families First” Notice and Effective Date “Changed” to April 1st

The Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) was enacted on March 18, 2020 (to see our firm’s previous alert click here).

Poster/Notice: Today the federal Department of Labor issued a required notice that employers (with fewer than 500 employees) must post no later than March 26th. The FFCRA states that a notice is required to be posted within seven days of the enactment, which is April 1^st. The notice is attached to this alert and can also be found here.

The DOL has also issued a series of “question and answer” clarifications regarding the FFCRA which should prove to be very helpful to employers which can be found here.  Each employer with fewer than 500 employees should post the notice with its other labor law posters (in a conspicuous place on the employer’s premises) but also email or direct mail it and/or post it on the company’s internal or external website so that employees working remotely or away from the employer’s premises have access to it. The notice needs be provided only to current employees and new hires.

Effective Date of the FFCRA is now April 1st: The DOL stated that the FFCRA is effective on April 1st. The FFCRA itself states that it is effective “not later than 15 days after the date of enactment,” which is April 2nd. With this discrepancy, we are advising clients to comply with the FFCRA beginning on April 1, 2020, which is one week from tomorrow. The FFCRA expires on December 31, 2020.

The DOL also confirmed that the joint-employer test from the Fair Labor Standards Act and the integrated-employer test under the Family and Medical Leave Act will be used to determine if multiple business entities constitute a single employer for purposes of determining whether the employer has fewer than 500 employees.

Small Business Exemptions: The DOL guidance states businesses with less than 50 employees may qualify for exemption from certain FFCRA requirements if the leave requirements would jeopardize the viability of the business as a going concern. The DOL has stated it will issue additional information regarding the exemption in future regulations.

If you have any questions, please contact one of the attorneys in our Labor and Employment Group:

Michael Torchia, mtorchia@sogtlaw.com / 215-887-2042
Michael Dubin, mdubin@sogtlaw.com / 215-887-2658
Frank Spada, fspada@sogtlaw.com / 215-887-2653
Stephen Goldblum, sgoldblum@sogtlaw.com / 215-887-5961
Joseph Fluehr, jfluehr@sogtlaw.com / 267-620-1906