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Whataburger to settle allegations that the manager was told to hire only white applicants

Restaurant Dive The general manager "repeatedly" told the hiring manager to hire white, not black, applicants for employment because upper management wanted its ... #workfromhome #officelife #motivation #callcenter #stressful #coronavirus #interview #hiringevents #healthcare #deliverydriver

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International intelligence dossier alleges China mishandled coronavirus response

The Australian Daily Telegraph reports a dossier from an intelligence alliance between the U.S., U.K., Canada, Australia and New Zealand alleges China misled and shielded information on the coronavirus outbreak. CBS News intelligence and national security reporter Olivia Gazis joined CBSN with the latest.

The Next Normal: A Littler Insight on Returning to Work. Social distancing strategies are numerous: putting up partitions between employees in open-work areas or manufacturing lines to limit the likelihood of ...

The COVID-19 pandemic has had an unprecedented impact on individuals and businesses across the globe. Governments closed their borders, issued health advisories, implemented social distancing, shut down all but essential businesses, and legislated significant support for companies and individuals. Employers found themselves making unexpected and tough choices about employees’ job status, wages and benefits, privacy, and employee safety. While the future still holds uncertainty as to the ultimate impact of the virus, the pandemic’s initial origination in Asia provides an opportunity for western-based employers to anticipate where they might be in six weeks to two months and what they might anticipate as they prepare to manage their employees’ to return to the workplace.

Prepare for Additional Waves. The most obvious risk in a return to work scenario is the likelihood of a secondary spread of the virus. Singapore provides an important case study. Singapore’s first wave of the virus arose out of the significant travel to and from China around the Chinese New Year. Singapore took quick action and largely succeeded in limiting the spread. The second wave came as individuals returned to Singapore from Europe and the United States, triggering another, more serious, outbreak. And, despite government intervention, a third wave flooded the city with 1,000+ new cases in a single day as the virus spread through high-occupancy workers’ dormitories. Employers considering a return to work must do so with care for the possibility (or likelihood) of additional waves of the virus. This means appropriate planning and prioritizing administrative and environmental controls that limit the spread of the virus. It also means caution in creating a return to work plans, such as using a phased approach.

Stick to the Basics: Aggressive Disinfecting and Personal Hygiene. Wherever the employees are located, there is a relative global consensus on basic strategies to manage the spread of the virus. The employer’s implementation of aggressive controls to maintain a clean environment should remain a hallmark of any return to work strategy. Many countries in Asia continue to require and even monitor aggressive cleaning strategies, and the current plans of many western countries for reopening maintain this as a key requirement. Employers must ensure that they are watching out for local guidance and regularly disinfecting the workplace accordingly. Also, every employer should consistently remind employees of the expected personal hygiene, such as regular handwashing, sanitizing one’s own worksite, recognizing the symptoms of the virus, and other steps.

Enforce Social Distancing. Two months ago, no one even knew what “social distancing” was. Now, it is a constant discussion from Asia to the Americas. Social distancing refers to the precautions individuals (and employers) take to maintain sufficient “distance” between individuals to reduce the spread of the virus. Social distancing strategies are numerous: putting up partitions between employees in open-work areas or manufacturing lines to limit the likelihood of contagion; placing desks sufficiently distant from one another; limiting room/elevator capacities; staggering shifts to eliminate lines at the start or end of shifts or other steps.

The experience so far in Asia is that companies are getting creative to address social distancing principles. In China, one manufacturer is requiring employees to eat in designated spots, to face the same direction when eating, and to use separate tables from one another. A number of Korean employers prohibit eating lunch across from one another and maintain video conferencing to reduce face-to-face interactions.

Social distancing strategies may not directly impact employment restrictions, so companies in the East and the West have relative freedom to establish practices to fit their worksite. Ultimately, employers must still comply with any local social distancing regulations. For example, Korea and Singapore continue to maintain significant social distancing requirements while countries like China or Japan strongly recommend, but may not as actively enforce such practices.

Plan for the Long-Term Impact of Work-From-Home. Given the numerous lockdowns, companies were forced to adopt work-from-home strategies (where possible) to maintain business continuity. In addition to the practical administration of such a program, multinational employers had a crash course on compliance with disparate rules for reimbursement of home office expenses across jurisdictions. It is still too early to tell, even in Asia, the long-term impact of the new familiarity with work-from-home. It seems safe to say that work-from-home is likely to remain an ongoing option for many months to come as, even when restrictions are lifted, employers in China have been reluctant (or unable) to reopen at 100%. This cautious (or unavoidable) approach has the advantage of allowing employers to test social distancing strategies in advance of full staffing. On the other hand, it serves to further entrench workers in a newfound familiarity with (or perhaps even preferences for) work-from-home.

Provide Personal Protective Equipment. Unfortunately, an employer’s obligation to provide personal protective equipment is complicated and fraught with employment risks. This is one area where employers will need to know (among other things) (i) whether local rules require certain equipment in their industry; (ii) who must provide that equipment; and (iii) for how long must it be used. Employers are also faced with locating the equipment, purchasing it, maintaining it, and perhaps training employees on proper use. This is no small task and one that many Asia-based companies continue to manage. For example, though the wearing of masks as a way to curtail the spread of the virus seems to have finally achieved more global recognition, masks continue to receive significant attention as to which masks are sufficient for which people in which industry – and whether they can even be purchased.

Beware the Testing Quagmire. Most countries require employers to maintain a safe workplace. Employers routinely implement testing in the form of temperature checks, health questionnaires, and more recently, tests designed to identify COVID-19. The kind of test used and the manner in which it is implemented raise significant employment concerns as they often trigger data privacy, confidentiality, collective bargaining, and other employment requirements. Though temperature screening and health questionnaires are and remain common in Asia, tests designed to identify whether an individual actually has or had COVID-19 (i.e., swab tests or antibody testing) can raise significant employment risks. While locations like China, Hong Kong or Singapore have relatively few limitations on such testing, other locations have strenuous limitations on medical testing, which can lead to litigation, penalties, or fines. In the United States, for example, medical testing is highly regulated, and employers must be cognizant of important disability anti-discrimination laws.

Take a Local View on Leaves and Refusals to Return. The thorniest issue for return to work will be managing the employees’ entitlements to leaves, requests for accommodations, or refusals to return. There is no one-size-fits-all approach. In Singapore, employers enjoy relatively broad discretion in creating and enforcing leaves. Other than sick and annual leave, there are relatively few leave protections that would prohibit an employer from disciplining and terminating an employee unwilling to return to work. In contrast, the United States has issued enhancements to its leave laws (at the federal, state, or even city level) to protect workers. Workers may enjoy job-protected leave if they do not return to work because of their own (or family members’) exposure to COVID-19 or to take care of children who cannot return to school, among others. Asia’s experience, unfortunately, provides little help for western companies in this regard. Hong Kong, Thailand, and Korea did not undergo significant lockdowns and, therefore, have not had to address the massive return-to-work challenges experienced elsewhere. And, China’s protections for leave are not as significant as those in many western locations.

Bear in Mind the Bottom Line. The economic impact is uncertain and some industries have seen extensive impact while others have not. In any case, the return to work will continue to require employers to manage ahead for reduced cash flow, supply chain impediments, diminished business opportunities, and other risks. In Asia, as in the West, employers are and continue to assess and revise compensation structures, headcount, and benefits. The employment requirements for any such change must be viewed at the local level, though appropriate planning at higher regional or global levels can improve efficiency and timing to address a company’s bottom line.

In short, Asia’s experience with the virus has provided some helpful tips for what many western companies may see as they now begin to emerge from government-enforced lockdowns. But, the process has only just begun and will require vigilance at the global and local levels to ensure compliance with employment rules while also managing the business’ bottom line.

#coronavirus #besafe #enforcesocialdistancing #personalprotectiveequipment

Source: Littler Mendelson PC

Put 1 million Americans back to work with community public service jobs

The Hill It is one of the most direct and cost-effective strategies for getting Americans back to work. Carl E. Van Horn is a Distinguished Professor of Public Policy ...

LIVE President Trump Participates in a Roundtable

Economists and budget experts concede that they can make no concrete predictions about how long the economy will be in a recession because of the novel coronavirus outbreak and the cumulative effects it will have on jobs and revenue. Nonetheless, the consequences that they have been able to forecast show that the city has a tough road ahead, experiencing a worse downturn than in the early 1970s as 1.2 million jobs have already been lost and, with extreme social distancing measures in place for the foreseeable future, more losses expected.

Last month, with what information was available, City Comptroller Scott Stringer predicted that the city would lose as much as $6 billion in revenue by the end of the next fiscal year, June 30, 2021. But a new report from the city’s Independent Budget Office estimates that the cumulative tax revenue loss in that time could be closer to $9.7 billion, with expected revenue down by 4.6% in the current fiscal year (FY2020) and 10.5% in FY2021. Though revenue may begin to climb by 2022, IBO still predicts it will be lower by 6.6% that fiscal year.

“Damage from the pandemic is particularly intense in New York City because the city’s economy relies heavily on industries that have been largely shut down in order to limit the spread of the coronavirus,” the report reads. Against this backdrop, Mayor Bill de Blasio is about to release his executive budget plan for the next fiscal year, facing the need to cut billions from the spending plan and look to the federal government for a bailout.

IBO assumes that the city will lose 475,000 jobs between April 2020 through March 2021, after which the economy will slowly start adding jobs till the end of 2022. Retail employment will lose about 100,000 jobs, hotels and restaurants will lose 86,000, and the arts, entertainment, and recreation industries will lose about 26,000, its forecast says. Other job losses will be across a range of industries and sectors of the economy, the IBO predicts. The only sector that will not see expected losses is health care.

Unlike predictions by budget experts of a prolonged recession, however, IBO assumes that the economy will see a “modest rally” between October and December this year. But, the report also presumes a high degree of doubt. “Given how little is known about the persistence of the Covid-19 crisis and how long the economy must remain shut, however, there is great uncertainty about the depth and duration of the expected recession and the strength of any post-recession bounce—let alone the recession’s eventual impact on tax revenue,” it reads.

What the report does note unequivocally is that job losses will be concentrated in low- and moderate-paying jobs.

A separate new report from James Parrott and Lina Moe at The New School’s Center for New York City Affairs comes to a similar conclusion, and notes that the coronavirus pandemic “has revealed a new dimension of inequality.”

“The effects of this public health crisis are widespread, touching nearly every facet of New York City’s economy, yet the fallout is also disproportionately affecting already-vulnerable workers and communities,” Parrot and Moe wrote.

The report analyzes three categories of jobs, excluding those in government: 1 million “essential” jobs (public health, safety, sustenance) that continue to be performed; 1.9 million “face-to-face” jobs (restaurants, hotels, transportation, administrative and building services, non-essential manufacturing and retail and wholesale trade), which have been restricted; and 1.5 million “remote” professional and managerial jobs that can be performed while social distancing.

There’s a stark contrast in how the coronavirus has affected each category of jobs. Essential workers, largely lower-paid, are facing the most risk to their health; face-to-face workers are experiencing the worst fiscal impact from being terminated or furloughed, and remote workers are at a relatively lower risk of exposure while continuing to receive pay and benefits.

The report finds that, by the end of April, the city will have lost 1.2 million jobs, about 27% of all private-sector workers and independent contractors. Looking at the latest unemployment claims data from the state Department of Labor, it notes that despite 812,000 unemployment insurance claims having been filed in the four weeks ending April 4, New York has seen a lower rate of claims filed (9.8%) compared with other large states, including the likes of Michigan (21.8%), Pennsylvania (20.3%) and California (15%). But that is likely to increase as the state improves its capacity for processing claims.

Making matters worse, face-to-face workers, who are already lower paid and less educated, will be hit the hardest by the coronavirus. The report estimates that five out of six jobs will be lost in face-to-face industries. About 64% of jobs lost already paid less than $40,000 a year. Among those who make more than $100,000 annually, there is only a 10% drop.

Consequently, the report estimates that while many workers already lacked access to employer-provided healthcare, the outbreak could leave nearly 800,000 newly unemployed New Yorkers without health insurance.

There are disproportionate geographic and demographic effects as well, the report finds. The highest number of face-to-face workers live in the Bronx and Queens, while more essential workers live on Staten Island and in the Bronx than other boroughs.

Elected officials have recently called for a racial breakdown to see how coronavirus deaths may be more concentrated among communities of color. As far as job losses go, Parrot and Moe found that there is indeed a stark racial disparity.

More than two-thirds of jobs lost, 68%, were among people of color. Latino workers were the worst off, accounting for 32% of lost jobs. A third of younger New Yorkers, between the ages of 18 to 24, lost their jobs, compared to the 27% job loss rate.

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by Samar Khurshid, senior reporter, Gotham Gazette ead more by this writer.

The Small Business Association has announced they are no longer accepting applications for the Paycheck Protection Program due to a lack of funding. FOX Business' Hillary Vaughn with more.

HUMAN ARE GOING TO BE REPLACE Is AI replacing humans? An AI takeover; is this a true hypothetical scenario in which artificial intelligence (AI) becomes the dominant form of intelligence on Earth, with computers or robots effectively taking the control of the planet away from the human species. OR?

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Watch the coronavirus Livestream coverage of the outbreak as COVID-19 spreads, impacting markets and daily life across the U.S. and abroad. » Subscribe to NBC News: http://nbcnews.to/SubscribeToNBC #workfromhome #motivation #officelife #callcenter #stressful #coronavirus #interview #hiringevents #healthcare #deliverydriver

Meet The Press The curve appears to be flattening, suggesting that eventually the rate of deaths will also slow, FDA Commissioner, Dr. Stephen Hahn talks to Meet the Press about the steps the FDA is taking to combat the coronavirus spread and more on » Subscribe to NBC News: http://nbcnews.to/SubscribeToNBC » Watch more NBC video: http://bit.ly/MoreNBCNews

Meet The Press Broadcast (Full) - April 12th, 2020 | Meet The Press | NBC News #stressful #coronavirus