The distribution of a COVID-19 vaccine has made many Americans see the long-awaited light at the end of the tunnel. But the journey is far from over, especially for employers. Requiring the vaccine comes with a lot of legal limitations, the wrapping up of payroll relief and repayment of loans must be properly handled, and there’s the forever-changed workplace that continues to reshape everything from hiring to firing.

All of this while a new administration takes office with a COVID-19 plan that impacts your business’s safety protocols and an expected FMLA expansion that changes your leave policies.

Prepare yourself and your workforce for the last phases of the pandemic with the Employment Law & COVID-19 Summit, a comprehensive recording designed to help you each step of the way. This 3-hour workshop is led by two of our top employment lawyers who will prepare you for the post-pandemic workplace.

Estimates are the pandemic will continue to impact Americans through most of 2021. Employment lawyer Anniken Davenport will provide an overview of employment and labor laws your HR department and executives must take action on, including:

• Vaccinations: Can you force workers to get one of the COVID-19 vaccination series? If so, who pays? What happens if the worker develops an adverse reaction? What about religious objections? Or moral objections? Disability-related ones? Or even political ones?
• Lawsuit protection: Learn all about liability protection – what new laws cover and what they don’t. Hint: if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
• New guidance from OSHA and the CDC: Expect new, binding rules for worker safety and disease prevention. That means potential fines and penalties.
• Telework continuation: Should you allow continued telework? And on what terms? How does telework impact wage and hour classification? Who pays for equipment and utilities? What about workers’ comp? If your workers are scattered everywhere, can you make them independent contractors?
• Shutdowns: Understand what you need to have in place to prepare for the inevitable shutdown/reopen cycle.
• Pandemic harassment: If you thought preventing workplace harassment was tough before…. just wait until the tsunami of COVID-related harassment lawsuits hits. Already, employee and customer harassment and even assaults are on the rise.

Retaining staff and paying them promptly remains a top concern. In this hour, payroll and tax attorney Alice Gilman will provide guidance on:

• Deferrals of Social Security taxes. What to expect from the IRS, when to expect it and how to avoid ugly confrontations with the IRS over the amounts you need to pay back if you deferred the employer’s portion of Social Security taxes last year.
• Employee retention credit. It’s expired, but that doesn’t mean you can’t take it in 2021.
• How to fix up mistakes with pandemic payroll tax credits, before the IRS does. The IRS gave itself permission to recapture erroneous pandemic payroll tax credits using the easiest (for it, anyway) administrative tools. Here’s how to fix your mistakes before you’re snagged by the IRS.
• State nexus rules. State nexus rules are continuing to complicate state withholding and compliance with state wage payment laws.
• Extension of paid FMLA leave. What to know about the extension on paid FMLA leave provision and your payroll tax credit for providing it.
• New withholding requirements for 401(k) plan loans. Employees who took out COVID-related loans from their 401(k) plans must now begin to pay them back. And they most likely do that through Payroll. Are you prepared for this additional withholding category?
• FUTA tax impact. States have been borrowing hundreds of millions of dollars from the Department of Labor to fund unemployment benefits. If history is any guide, some states won’t be able to repay their loans on time. Your FUTA tax rate will take a direct hit. Learn how to prepare now.

If the Employment Law & COVID-19 Summit fails to meet your needs in any way, we will refund every penny you paid – no hassles, no questions asked.