COVID-19 testing in Michigan will be free until end of year: Governor Gretchen Whitmer and the Michigan Department of Insurance and Financial Services (DIFS) have announced that the state has secured agreements from nearly all of the state’s health insurers to waive all out-of-pocket costs for COVID-19 testing and treatments through the end of 2020, including copays, deductibles, and coinsurance. These agreements cover more than 92% of the commercial health insurance market in Michigan. At least through year’s end, consumers with these individual and group health plans will not be charged cost-sharing for medically appropriate COVID-19-related medical treatment, such as primary care visits, diagnostic testing, emergency room visits, ambulance services, and U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved medications and vaccines when they become available

Employee COVID-19 related deaths must be reported immediately to OSHA: Employers that learn a worker has died after catching COVID-19 on the job have eight hours to report that fatality to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the federal workplace safety watchdog said in new guidance.  The Labor Department's workplace safety arm advised employers that they must inform the agency about COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths among their workforce.  In an update to its running list of advice for employers during the pandemic, the U.S. Department of Labor's OSHA said businesses have to tell the agency about COVID-19 hospitalizations and fatalities among their numbers that were caused by workplace exposure to the virus.  Source:  OSHA 9/30/20

Immigration fight in the courts:  The Trump administration was blocked from restricting H-1B visas that highly skilled foreign technology workers rely on to work in the U.S. The ruling conflicts with a pair of decisions in September in similar cases.  U.S. District Judge Jeffrey S. White in Oakland, California, agreed with several big U.S. business groups, which argued President Donald Trump exceeded his authority by imposing the immigration restrictions. The order, at odds with the conclusion reached by a federal judge in Washington, means the fight will likely move to an appeals court.  White said his order doesn’t apply nationwide but only to the members of the plaintiff organizations. Those members, which include giants like Amazon.com and Microsoft Corp., comprise hundreds of thousands of U.S. businesses of all sizes and from a cross-section of economic sectors.  Source:  Bloomberg 10/1/20

2021 will likely see increased costs for healthcare due to delayed procedures:  Though the pandemic drove a significant decrease in the use of healthcare services—and associated employer costs—in 2020, employer healthcare benefit costs in 2021 are likely to increase “above and beyond non-pandemic projections” as care deferred in 2020 is pushed into the future, according to new data.  A new Willis Towers Watson analysis found employer healthcare costs in 2020 will likely come in between 3.3% and 8.8% lower than originally expected, as system capacity shifts and fear of contracting the virus in medical settings continues to drive a significant volume of canceled and deferred care. In 2021, costs are expected to rise again, between 0.5% and 5% above non-pandemic projections, due to continued care for COVID-19 patients and delivery of previously deferred non-COVID-19 care. When 2020 and 2021 are combined, the consulting firm’s analysis—which studied four potential future patterns of COVID-19 infection and the subsequent impact on the level of care delivered to COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 patients—shows cost reductions of between 2.8% and 3.8% from non-pandemic levels across the four patterns.  Source:  HR Executive 9/28/20

U.S. lawmakers introduce bill to make the California ABC test for contractors law of the land:  On September 24, Democratic lawmakers introduced the Worker Flexibility and Small Business Protection Act, intended to expand labor laws to protect workers classified as independent contractors (IC) and workers at subcontractors, temporary agencies, and corporate franchises. The sponsors of Worker Flexibility and Small Business Protection Act pointed out that S. 4738 would create a new standard under which workers are presumed to be employees. The bill would create a strong "ABC" test, ensuring that workers will only be considered independent contractors if:  (1) The individual is free from control and direction; (2) The labor is performed outside the usual course of business; and (3) The individual is engaged in an independently established business.  Essentially this bill will make it that all ICs will likely be reclassified as employees if passed.

OFCCP establishes hotline for EO 13950 D&I complaints:  The U.S. Department of Labor has announced that its Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) has established a hotline and email address to receive and investigate complaints under existing Executive Order 11246 as well as Executive Order 13950, “Executive Order Combating Race and Sex Stereotyping,” issued on Sept. 22, 2020 by the President of the United States. The new OFCCP Complaint Hotline to Combat Race and Sex Stereotyping can be reached at 202-343-2008 or via email at [email protected]. While the order is effective immediately, its specific requirements for Federal contractors apply only to those with Federal contracts entered into 60 days after the date of the order, or Nov. 21, 2020. However, training programs prohibited by the new Executive Order may also violate a contractor’s obligations under the existing Executive Order 11246, which prohibits discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, and for inquiring about, discussing, or disclosing your compensation or the compensation of others.  An employee may file a complaint regarding training programs that they believe to be in violation via OFCCP’s website at https://www.dol.gov/agencies/ofccp/contact/file-complaint  or OFCCP can send them a copy of the complaint form by email or regular mail.  Source:  OFCCP 9/28/20

Oops—Union leader goes to jail for fighting nonunion workers:  Jeffrey R. Veach was the local president of Iron Workers Local 395 in Northwest Indiana. He has pleaded guilty to conspiring in an assault on some non-union workers who refused to join his union, while they were doing a job at a church. The facts reported were a D5 Iron Works work crew was installing steel framing for a school to be built for the Dyer Baptist Church the first week of January, 2016. The government alleged Local 395 had ‘territorial jurisdiction’ over areas of Northwest Indiana, including Dyer, and routinely monitored job sites for employers not using Local 395 ironworkers. D5's owner refused Williamson’s attempt to have union members work the Dyer job. Williamson allegedly returned to the construction site the next day, Jan. 7, 2016, with Veach, who recruited about a dozen rank-and-file members of Local 395 to surround the work site that afternoon. Gottfried states the D5 was packing up for the day when a caravan of vehicles pulled into the site’s parking lot. Local 395 members got out and began attacking D5 workers with fists, loose pieces of wood, and steel-toe work boots, kicking some who had fallen to the ground, including one whose jaw was broken multiple times. Although local law enforcement never charged Veach, a federal grand jury indicted him and Williamson more than two years later, Aug. 15, 2018, with conspiracy to commit extortion under the federal Hobbs Act, which protects interstate commerce. Veach admitted in his plea agreement that he and Williamson initiated the attack to intimidate the employer to withdraw the non-union workers and win a contract for Local 395 workers.  Source: Barnes & Thornburg LLP  9/29/20