Does Your Business Insurance Cover COVID-19 Losses?

Coronavirus Action Alert #8
From The Ward Damon Business Law Team
By Ronald S. Nisonson

The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly impacted businesses throughout our country.  While Congress has enacted the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Stability Act (CARES), businesses should also consider turning to their insurance carriers for coverage to mitigate the fallout from this virus.  Businesses can and should consider the insurance coverages listed below that may be triggered by COVID-19 losses or claims:

• Business Interruption Coverage
• General Liability Coverage
• Workers Compensation Coverage
• Directors and Officers Coverage

Please keep in mind that each situation is unique and is based on the policy language, factual circumstances and applicable state law.  As a starting point, businesses should examine their policy language carefully and consider retaining counsel to assist in determining whether coverage may exist for COVID-19 related losses or claims.

Employees & Volunteering – Is It Work Time?

By Bari Goldstein

It is becoming increasingly popular nowadays for companies to support charitable organizations and causes through sponsorships, events, and employee volunteer programs. This may contribute positively to the workplace culture and even be considered a perk for some employees…but what is the law in terms of wages for volunteer time?  Laws will vary depending on whether you work in the public or nonprofit sector vs the for-profit, private sector.

In a recently released Department of Labor (DOL) Opinion Letter [FLSA2019-2], the DOL tackled the issue of whether an employee’s time spent participating in an employer’s optional volunteer program, which awarded certain bonuses for participation, was considered hours worked under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).  This is an important issue for those employers who want their employees to “volunteer” for or at charitable events, but who don’t want to run afoul of an employer’s obligations to compensate non-exempt employees for “all hours worked.”

In this particular situation, the Company (the Opinion Letter did not disclose whether it was a private or public entity) had an optional volunteer program that awarded a monetary bonus to the team with the most community impact.  Specifically:

Leave for Domestic Violence Survivors: An Issue Whose Time Has Come

By Denise J. Bleau

In the United States, 20 people per minute are physically abused by an intimate partner, according to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence (NCADV). This equates to more than 10 million women and men in a year. 1 in 4 women and 1 in 7 men have been victims of severe physical violence (e.g. beating, burning, strangling) by an intimate partner in their lifetime. Victims of domestic violence may require leave from work to seek safe shelter, seek a protection order from the Court, work with their employer on safety issues in the workplace, or possibly seek new schooling for their children.

Effective April 1, 2019, employers in New Zealand will be required to provide 10 days of paid leave per year to survivors of domestic violence. The leave provides victims with time to heal, go to court, keep their children safe, and escape their abusive situation. This leave is separate from annual holiday or sick leave. New Zealand’s new law also allows victims to ask for flexible working arrangements and makes discrimination against victims illegal.

Working Out The Bugs: Pest Control Service Technicians & Overtime

By: Sally Still, Esquire

The Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) and some state statutes, require employers to pay overtime. Generally, overtime is time and one-half the employee’s regular rate of pay for all hours over 40 hours in a week. However, this requirement is subject to a number of “exemptions.”

Commissioned sales people may fall within one of those exemptions, known as “7(i)”. For the exemption to apply, certain conditions must be met: