Inflation Reduction Act
Keeping Your Plant Safe From COVID-19
If you’re a plant owner, you should be concerned about the health and safety not only of your employers but of your contractors’ workers. Bob Nichols, a partner in Bracewell’s labor and employment team, discusses why you need to be...
Labor & Employment Webinar: Have Questions? Get Answers
The volume of evolving information arising out of the coronavirus pandemic is astounding. How do employers sort through it all to know what is important for your company and role within the organization? Bracewell’s webinar aims to help. Our Labor...
Environmental Audit Opportunities to Consider for Return-to-Work in the Wake of COVID-19
As regulated companies and facilities around the country consider their approaches to partially or even fully returning to the workplace – even essential facilities that have remained open but with limited staffing – it seems inevitable that they will discover...
EHS Self-Auditing: Effectively Utilizing Privileges to Protect Your Findings
Assessing compliance with EHS-related requirements is fundamental for industry, not only to validate compliance assurance efforts, but to help prevent, or at least minimize, enforcement exposure. At the same time, however, candid evaluations give rise to other risks in the...
CARES Act – Bracewell Employment and Tax Lawyers Weigh In
The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act was signed into law on March 27, 2020. The CARES Act , an emergency relief bill providing roughly $2 trillion to businesses and individuals, aims to provide relief to the American...
President Trump Signs Families First Coronavirus Response Act
On March 18, 2020, President Donald Trump signed into law the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (the “FFCRA”). The FFCRA seeks to assist employees impacted by novel coronavirus (“COVID-19”) and applies to employers with fewer than 500 employees . The...
Tax Relief under High Deductible Health Plans for COVID-19 Testing and Treatment
Due to the rapid spread of COVID-19, the Internal Revenue Service has issued Notice 2020-15 (the “Notice”) to provide relief for high deductible health plans (“HDHPs”) with respect to providing health benefits associated with testing for and treatment of COVID-19...
New House Bill Prompted by Coronavirus
In the early morning hours of March 14, 2020, the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 6201, the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (the “House Bill”), which seeks to assist employees impacted by the coronavirus and has significant impacts for...
COVID-19 Preparedness
Employers across the world are responding to the developing information on the coronavirus (referred to as COVID-19). While there are many considerations, and many fact-specific considerations based on the nature of the workforce, employers should keep these tips... Read more...
Department of Labor Issues Final Rule on Calculating the Regular Rate of Pay
Today, December 12, the Department of Labor filed 1 a Final Rule clarifying the types of benefits that must be included in the “regular rate of pay.” Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), employers must pay workers at least...
San Antonio Paid Sick Leave Ordinance Will Not be Implemented on December 1
Today, San Antonio Judge Peter Sakai granted a temporary injunction preventing the City’s Sick and Safe Leave Ordinance from taking effect. The Ordinance’s December 1, 2019, effective date has been indefinitely delayed. Judge Sakai stated that a full trial to...
Staying Compliant in 2020 and Beyond - Drug Testing, Marijuana, and CBD Laws & Trends
Bracewell Partner Robert Nichols tackled the layers of drug testing laws and regulations affecting employers. Our webinar explored trends we see across the country and explain how to stay complaint no matter where your business operates. Special emphasis was given...
When Does it Pay to be Absent From Work? Developments in State and Local Paid Leave Requirements
Leslie Selig Byrd and Amber Dodds discuss the increasing number of state laws and local ordinances requiring paid leave benefits to employees. Many of these require a minimum number of hours of accrued paid time off for illness or preventative...
Not Just a Hashtag: Legislation Created by #MeToo
On November 5, 2019, Bracewell attorneys Amy Karff Halevy and Becky Baker discussed the ways in which sexual harassment and discrimination laws are dramatically changing at the state and local level in the wake of the #MeToo movement. The webinar...
USDOL’s Final Salary Regulations: Impact on Exempt Employees and the Possibility of Future Litigation
On September 24, 2019, the U.S. Department of Labor (“USDOL”) announced its new Final Overtime Rule . The 2019 Final Rule comes in the wake of the heavily litigated salary threshold regulations issued by the Obama Administration in 2016. The...