News of an outbreak of a new coronavirus first identified in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China raises issues for employers and employees about the appropriate workplace responses.

Welcome and thank you for your interest in the 2020: The Year Ahead for Employers and the 2019: California Year-End Summary.

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has announced it is implementing an electronic registration process in the next H-1B visa lottery. Employers seeking to file fiscal year 2021 H-1B cap-subject petitions must first electronically register and pay a $10 fee for each electronic registration they submit to USCIS.

The “Respect Graduate Student Workers Act,” introduced by Representative Mark Pocan (D-Wis.), aims to classify graduate student workers as employees and ensure them “full labor protections” under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA).

1. The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has clarified its standard for evaluating the legality of employers’ facially neutral policies, rules, or handbook provisions. LA Specialty Produce Co., 368 NLRB No. 93 (Oct. 8, 2019). Overturning the Obama-NLRB standard, the NLRB in Boeing Co. provided a roadmap for how it will analyze the legality of employer work rules and policies. As it reviews them, the NLRB will place rules in one of three categories. Rules in Category 1 are lawful to maintain. Rules in Category 2 require individualized scrutiny.

The U.S. Supreme Court has heard oral argument on whether the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) lawfully terminated the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) Policy. The Court’s decision in a consolidated case (Homeland Security v. Regents of the University of California, Nos. 18-587, 588, and 589) will affect more than 700,000 individuals who came to the U.S. as children without proper documentation.

Persistent confusion over the Department of Labor’s (DOL) “fluctuating workweek” (FWW) pay method to satisfy employers’ obligation to pay overtime has deterred many from using it. Now, the DOL has proposed changes to clarify the pay method.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order on October 31 revoking the obligation of successor government service contract employers to offer their predecessor employers’ employees the right of first refusal in positions for which they are qualified.

With Election Day fast approaching, employers should ensure they are in compliance with state law requirements related to employee voting rights. While not all states impose requirements on employers, some impose time off obligations and notice requirements with the possibility of criminal or civil penalties for non-compliance.

The U.S. Supreme Court has heard oral argument in Kansas v. Garcia, a case in which it will decide whether a state may prosecute individuals for using false information on a Form I-9 Employment Eligibility Verification, a federal employment eligibility verification form. Kansas v. Garcia, No. 17-834.