COVID-19 Update September 28, 2020

Over the weekend, President Trump nominated New Orleans-native Amy Coney Barrett as a prospective Supreme Court Justice. Growing up in Old Metairie, she attended St. Catherine of Siena and Dominican High School before heading off to Rhodes for college followed by Notre Dame for law school.

Amy began her legal career as a judicial clerk, including a stint with conservative icon Justice Scalia, with whom she shares similar political stances, from 1998 to 1999. She then practiced law for several years in D.C. before joining the academic world in 2002 through 2017, when President Trump appointed her to the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals. Notably, Judge Barrett will be replacing liberal icon Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg, one of the most employee-friendly Supreme Court Justices of the modern era. Amy’s record in employment law cases supports the supposition that she will most often side with the Court’s current five-member, pro-business bloc. If confirmed, one of the first major cases she would decide will occur on November 10^th as the Supreme Court will hear arguments on whether the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is constitutional in whole or in part.

Furthermore, SHRM released more information on last week’s U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) proposed rule to clarify when a worker is an employee covered by the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) or an independent contractor. The rule, if finalized as proposed, would make classifying workers as contractors easier; however, it would not overturn worker-friendly state independent-contractor laws, such as the one in California.

Lastly, our national association (NAPEO) puts out a white paper every year on the advantage of using a PEO. For 2020, the research focused on companies that had a PEO during the Pandemic vs companies that did not have a PEO. This is great information! If you are not currently a client of a PEO like Delta, what is stopping you?