Page 26 - BusinessWest November 23, 2020

An Employment-law Forecast
Biden Administration Will Create a More Employee-friendly Landscape
OBy Andrew J. Adams, Esq.
n the heels of a fiercely contested elec-
tion, President-elect Joe Biden has
started his transition work, and has laid out plans that have the potential to affect busi- ness owners nationwide.
As expected, many these changes lean in favor of the employee as opposed to the employer. However, some plans should assist small busi- nesses. While it’s difficult to predict the future,
we can make some solid projections about what employers can expect from the Biden administration.
Workplace Safety and OSHA
The most immediate effect upon employers
is likely to be a push by the Biden administra- tion to enact emergency standards requiring employers to develop workplace-safety plans in reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic. Under the current administration, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) performed the lowest number of inspections in the history of the agency and reduced the number of inspec- tors on staff to the lowest level in the past 40 years.
Biden will immediately address these policies, leading to increased inspections and enforce- ment, as was the case under the Obama admin-
istration. This means employers will likely face harsher penalties for non-compliance and more substantial fines than they have over the past four years.
eral agency tasked with enforcing employment- discrimination laws.
In what is likely to be an immediate change, Biden is expected to rescind President Trump’s
Employers
are also likely
to encounter
the return of
the Obama
administration’s
workplace-safety
reporting rule.
This would
require certain
employers to
report illness and
injury informa-
tion to OSHA, which will then be maintained online as publicly available information.
Wage-and-hour Law
President-elect Biden’s campaign has stated he will seek to address wage inequalities between black and white workers, make it easier for work- ers to pursue claims of discrimination, and push for a higher minimum wage. The administration would increase the funding allotted to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the fed-
“The most immediate effect upon employers is likely to be a push by the Biden administration to enact emergency standards requiring em- ployers to develop workplace-safety plans in reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic.”
executive order banning training for federal agencies and contractors that contained “offen- sive and anti-American race and sex stereotyping and scapegoating.” The executive order banned training on several topics and recommended keyword searches for terms such as “white privi- lege,” “systemic racism,” and “unconscious bias” to identify if trainings were inappropriate under the order.
Employers can also expect a push at the federal level
Forecast
Continued on page 40
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26 NOVEMBER 23, 2020
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