On Wednesday, November 17, Butzel Long will present its 34th Annual Labor, Employment, Benefits, and Immigration Law Forum from 8 a.m. to noon. The program, titled "The Evolving Workplace During and After COVID," will provide attendees with information regarding a wide variety of labor, employment, employee benefits, and immigration issues facing employers today. Attendees will be eligible for 1-3 HRCI and SHRM CE Credits, pending approval.
Due to COVID-19, Butzel will be hosting the seminar virtually and will have a slightly different format. Attendees will be asked to register for each session individually to give more flexibility in scheduling and to better distribute the continuing education credits. Attendees should register for the "Welcome and Introduction" session and then register for one webinar in each Workshop Session.
The agenda for the forum includes:
• 8 a.m-Welcome and Introduction, with Dan Tukel. COVID continues to create a myriad of ever-changing challenges for employers. But COVID issues are not the only challenges employers face. Some of the most significant employment developments of the last year will be highlighted.
• 8:30 to 9:30 a.m.-Workshop Session I
– "Remote Work," with Regan Dahle and Brett Miller. Many employers and employees have now seen that remote work may be more realistic than previously believed. Some employers are allowing employees to choose to work remotely to a greater extent, or even exclusively. But remote work creates issues for employers to consider, including wage and hour issues, accommodations regarding technology needed to work remotely, and more.
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– "Rethinking Employee Benefits in the COVID-19 Era," with Tom Shaevsky and Mark Jane. The long and still ongoing pandemic has affected companies both large and small. Employers have questions about how to administer their benefit platforms for returning workforces. Employers may need to manage possible COVID distribution paybacks, counting of hours for employer shared responsibility reporting, vaccine issues under group health plans or wellness programs, use of incentives to encourage vaccinations or charging higher rates to non-vaccinated employees, COBRA benefits, and plan elections. This workshop will discuss many of these benefits considerations most companies face as their capacities ramp up.
• 9:30 to 9:45 a.m.-Break
• 9:45 to 10:45 a.m.-Workshop Session II
– "Accommodations in the Age of COVID," with Rebecca Davies and Sarah Nirenberg. Accommodating protected disabilities and religious practices have always been a challenge for employers. But COVID has complicated things. Must employers accommodate employees who are fearful that returning to work will expose them to the virus? Must employers allow remote work as an accommodation? Employers are faced with accommodation requests to require some employees to wear masks and from other employees not to wear masks. And employers that are instituting vaccine mandates must contend with medical and religious accommodation requests. This workshop will discuss how to sort through the evolving and sometimes competing accommodation issues.
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– "Protecting Your Trade Secrets in Our New Work Environment." with Carey DeWitt and Brett Rendeiro. Confidential information and trade secrets are still among employers most valuable assets. But with remote work taking place to a greater extent than before, the need, and challenges, of protecting that confidential information and trade secrets is more acute than ever. This workshop will discuss concerns and tips for protecting one of your most valuable assets even in this challenging new work environment.
• 10:45 to 11 a.m.-Break
• 11 to noon-Workshop Session III
– "Politics in the Workplace," with James Rosenfeld and Scott Patterson. Politics continue to divide the country and workplace. Disagreements over political leanings, COVID restrictions, vaccine and mask mandates and more have created some heated, even violent disagreements in the workplace as well as through social media. To what extent can employers monitor or discipline employees for expressing strongly held political beliefs, both in or out of the workplace.
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– "Immigration During COVID: The New Reality and Impact on Employers and Foreign Nationals," with Linda Armstrong, Clara Mager, Reggie Pacis, Bushra Malik, He Xian, and Amany Kasham. Employers often still need employees cross borders, both inbound and outbound. This session will discuss various issues faced by foreign nationals and employers during the pandemic, including changes in government rules and regulations; changes in immigration processes; U.S. entry requirements, including obtaining National Interest Exceptions to travel bans; compliance requirements; and non-immigrant and immigrant visa processing.
Registration for the forum is $49. Butzel will issue an invoice to the registrant after registration. Presentation recordings will be made available to those who have registered for the event. To register, visit www.butzel.com and click on "events."
Inquiries can be directed to Nairi Chopjian at chopjian@butzel.com.
