CFO2220. Workforce Legislation and Unions

If you had told a Labor and Employment lawyer on January 1, 2020 that, over the course of the next two years, the majority of the American workforce would be working from home, required to have proof that they were essential workers to return (or risk prosecution), subjected to mandatory mask and vaccine requirements, and have much of their health information become an open book, the attorney would have thought you were, well, crazy. Yet, that’s precisely what COVID-19 has wrought in our nation. As a result, the executive and legislative branches have had to scramble to keep up with the almost unimaginable workplace consequences of a global pandemic.

This presentation explores recent federal workplace legislation and agency pronouncements, including their effects on managing a remote workforce. In addition, there will be discussion of union issues post-COVID as well as what traction, if any, President Biden’s July 2021 Executive Order on non-competes has gained in light of the pandemic.

Learning Objectives:

• Identify changes in American employment law since the dawn of COVID-19
• Recognize issues employers simply have to be aware of as the pandemic (hopefully) winds down, including returning to work and managing a remote workforce
• Analyze trends in traditional labor law since 2020
• Determine whether President Biden’s Executive Order and state legislative activity mean non-competes are kaput or are very much alive and well