Take It or Leave It

Understanding leaves of absence and accommodations in the United States generally begins with the federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). While both laws have been around since the early-1990s, their many nuances and moving parts, as well as novel external factors such as COVID-19, continue to require careful navigation by even the most seasoned attorneys, benefits professionals and human resources teams.

During this episode of “Take It or Leave It,” co-hosts Josh Seidman and Meg Toth are joined by their colleague and expert guest, Bill Perkins, from Seyfarth Shaw LLP’s New York Office, to discuss many important issues involving the FMLA and ADA. Specific topics include overviews of the FMLA and ADA, managing intermittent leave under the FMLA, responding to requests for FMLA leave for COVID or COVID-related conditions, leave and remote work as a reasonable accommodation under the ADA, and ADA accommodation requests by employees related to mental health issues.

With the patchwork of paid leave laws that have been cropping up across the country for many years now, including paid family leave, paid sick leave, paid COVID-19 leave and many others, it is easy for employers to lose sight of or completely miss the introduction and passing of new bills, and even the enactment of new paid leave laws.

During this episode of “Take It or Leave It,” co-hosts Josh Seidman and Meg Toth are joined by Dillon Clair, Director of State Advocacy and Litigation with the ERISA Industry Committee (ERIC). Dillon leads ERIC’s state advocacy efforts, coordinates ERIC’s expanding legal activities and is the host of ERIC’s monthly State of the States webinar. Join us to learn more about the wave of state and local paid leave legislation being considered during the current legislative session and what employers should be on the lookout for in terms of new laws and other legislative developments in the paid leave space.

Employers have now been dealing with the realities and impact of COVID-19 for two years. A major part of that reality for many companies has been and continues to be tracking, navigating, and complying with the nation’s ever-changing COVID-19 paid leave landscape.

During this episode of “Take It or Leave It,” co-hosts Josh Seidman and Meg Toth are joined by their colleague and expert guest, Elizabeth Levy, from Seyfarth Shaw LLP’s Los Angeles Century City Office, to discuss many important issues involving COVID-19 paid leave mandates that have been enacted during the pandemic. Specific topics include an overview of the impact COVID-19 has had on paid leave in the US, California-specific and non-California patchworks of COVID-19 paid leave laws, different types of COVID-19 paid leave, which jurisdictions continue to impose COVID-19 paid leave requirements on employers, and a forecast of what may come of COVID-19 paid leave mandates post-pandemic.

When employers think about how to handle their employees’ earned, unused paid time off some traditional options come to mind. They include forfeiture (i.e., use it or lose it), carryover (i.e., roll it into the next year), cash out, or some combination thereof. As employers continue to adjust to new workplace realities created by COVID-19, greater attention is being placed on employers’ paid time off setups and how they can be used to attract and retain talent, stand out among competitors, and generally reflect company culture.

During this episode of “Take It or Leave It,” Rob Whalen, co-founder and CEO of Seattle, WA-based PTO Exchange, joins co-hosts, Josh Seidman and Meg Toth, to discuss how his company’s software affords employers an alternative approach for handling earned, unused paid time off. Through PTO Exchange’s software, employees can convert the value of their unused paid time off hours into other tangible priorities, such as life planning (retirement funds), education (student loans), philanthropy (offering days to a co-worker or charitable causes), and more. Join us to learn more about PTO Exchange, including different plans available to employers, how its software operates, the impact of state and local paid leave mandates on the software, integration with payroll and timekeeping programs, and international employment law considerations.

During the last episode of “Take It or Leave It” we discussed the concept of “Unlimited” paid time off (PTO) for employees at an international level. For this episode, we are back for the second part of this two-part mini-series to explore “unlimited” PTO policies for U.S. employees.

Co-hosts Josh Seidman and Meg Toth are joined by their colleague and expert employment counselor and advisor, Chelsea Mesa, from Seyfarth Shaw LLP’s Los Angeles Office, to discuss important legal considerations and best practices for U.S. employers considering (or currently administering) an “unlimited” PTO program. Specifically, Chelsea discusses the benefits and drawbacks of “unlimited” PTO programs, including compliance with various state paid sick and vacation laws, considerations for implementing “unlimited” PTO programs for different types of workforces, and general best practices for drafting, implementing and administering an “unlimited” PTO program.

“Unlimited” paid time off (PTO) policies are contemplated by many U.S. employers as a way of providing a generous leave benefit to certain groups of employees, while also simplifying leave administration related to those employees. There are pros and cons to such policies at a domestic level, especially when state and local leave mandates enter the equation. But how do “unlimited” PTO policies fare internationally? Where a business maintains such a policy for members of its U.S. workforce, does it make sense to also roll it out to members of its international workforce?

During this episode of “Take It or Leave It” — the first of a two-part mini-series on “unlimited” PTO — co-hosts Josh Seidman and Meg Toth take a look at “unlimited” PTO policies at the international level. Josh and Meg are joined by two expert guests, Dan Waldman and Ana Cid, partners in Seyfarth Shaw LLP’s International Employment Law practice, to discuss important legal, practical, and cultural considerations for businesses wondering if an “unlimited” PTO program makes sense for their international employees. Specific topics include thoughts on which countries are among the most complex from the perspective of leave of absence regulations, differences between international and domestic leave of absence and time off laws, and understanding the concept of “unlimited” PTO outside of the U.S. (i.e., pros and cons, how it differs from such setups in the U.S., the relevance of there being no international employment at will doctrine, etc.).

Over the last two years, in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the way people work has changed drastically and the number of employers permanently adopting remote and/or hybrid work policies is continuing to grow. Many forward-thinking employers who have adopted or considered remote or hybrid work policies are encountering a host of new, complex issues related to leaves and accommodations and grappling with complicated tax considerations.

During this episode of “Take It or Leave It,” co-hosts Josh Seidman and Meg Toth are joined by two expert guests, Tracy Billows, a labor and employment lawyer and co-Managing Partner of Seyfarth Shaw LLP’s Chicago office and Paul Drizner, a tax lawyer and partner from Seyfarth Shaw LLP, to discuss many important issues that employers with full or partial remote workforces are facing related to leaves and accommodations and tax implications. Specific topics include coverage of remote workers under various federal, state and local paid leave laws, managing leaves and accommodations for remote workers, how to handle reasonable accommodation requests for remote work, and tax considerations for employers who find themselves with employees in states where they have never had employees before.

The country’s patchwork of state and local paid leave laws continues to evolve and impose perplexing and burdensome compliance obligations on even the most well-intentioned employers. A federal paid leave mandate affecting private employers, and with it a possible reprieve from the patchwork, has eluded lawmakers in Congress for years. The Build Back Better Act (“BBBA”) is the latest Congressional effort to enact a federal paid leave mandate, in this case a paid family and medical leave (“PFML”) program.

During this episode of “Take It or Leave It,” Ilyse Schuman, Senior Vice President, Health Policy at the American Benefits Council, joins co-hosts, Josh Seidman and Meg Toth, to discuss the history and current status of the BBBA, details of the BBBA’s PFML proposal, such as amount of weeks, qualifying absences, coverage and eligibility, and compliance options, and how the current PFML proposal would interact with the existing federal FMLA, as well as with state PFML programs and employer policies.

Prior to exemption requests for the COVID-19 vaccine, most employers were familiar with and regularly handled medical accommodation requests under the ADA. However, even for experienced employers, employee requests to be exempt from the COVID-19 vaccine for medical or disability-related reasons, particularly in the face of company vaccine mandates, have presented some significant and novel issues. During this episode of “Take It or Leave It,” Labor & Employment Attorney and ADA accommodation expert, Kristin McGurn, joins co-hosts, Josh Seidman and Meg Toth, to discuss different types of medical accommodation requests employers are receiving from employees in response to COVID-19 vaccine mandates, how employers are handling medical opinions from treating healthcare providers that conflict with CDC guidelines, and the different approaches employers are using to analyze and address these medical accommodation requests.

The increasing number of employers implementing COVID-19 vaccine mandates in the workplace has led to a significant influx of religious accommodation requests from employees asking to be exempt from receiving the COVID-19 vaccine. This high volume of religious accommodation requests and novel legal issues being presented by such requests have left many employers scrambling to process and address these requests in an efficient and legally compliant manner. During this inaugural episode of “Take It or Leave It,” Labor & Employment Attorney and religious accommodation expert, Dawn Solowey, joins co-hosts, Josh Seidman and Meg Toth, to discuss the various types of religious accommodation requests employers are receiving from employees in response to COVID-19 vaccine mandates, the different approaches employers are using to analyze and address these religious accommodation requests in a legally compliant manner, and practical considerations for handling large volumes of requests.