Posted on April 3rd, 2020
Find below a complete transcript of this video.
Speaker 1: (00:00)
Hello is John Fagerholm again, today I wanted to get into something related to the Corona virus and all the crazy stuff that’s happening with the laws.
I have a very special guest, Romy Frazier who is a, also a practicing attorney, but she’s in house counsel for a very large employer in California. And I’m sure there are no experts at this point in, uh, all of the new laws coming down. But Romy has really dug deep into it.
We’ve had many conversations about it and so I’ve asked her, begged her please to get on video with me and uh, so that we could just have a discussion about it.
Not that she can answer all of our questions or that, um, it’s even possible to answer the questions related to all of this stuff that’s happening right now because it’s so up in the air. But it’s a good topic for discussion.
All right, so hello Romy. Good to see you.
Speaker 2: (00:50)
Hello. Great to see you.
Speaker 1: (00:54)
So, let, let me start off by just saying it’s gotten a little crazy and their reaction, I’m from California in general to anything that’s labor related is always frantic and ridiculous.
In my opinion, very ridiculous. And it usually causes a ton more problems than it solves. But you know, when you have a national emergency like this, um, there are things you have to do in my opinion.
But it looks like there are three or four different entities all doing different things. You’ve got the federal government doing its thing, then you’ve got the state government doing its thing, the County government doing its thing and then nah, and then the city of LA or each city doing their thing.
So some of it seems to conflict. What’s your overall opinion about just in general? What’s going on?
Speaker 2: (01:43)
Wow. Yes, there are a lot of resources for information. So there’s not really one centralized source for information, even though each jurisdiction says they have one.
I’ve been following the websites for different city mayors and County health officers and you know, County judges and then governors and the federal government. And then of course you have the department of labor, you have the DFEH, everyone is giving their own guidance, all these different government agencies, whether it’s state related or County unrelated city related or federally.
So it’s really just trying to keep up cause everyone wants to be a responder to this major crisis that’s going on right now.
Speaker 1: (02:33)
And most of the questions I get from clients, or at least that I’ve been getting this week is about, uh, either layoffs or furloughs.
So, do you wanna talk about the difference between a layoff and for law? I think that’s probably the best place to, to, to start. Um, we all know what a layoff is.
Your company, I don’t know if they’re laying off a furloughing or doing any of that. Is that something you can discuss?
Speaker 2: (03:00)
My opinion would be that a furlough is when an employee is placed on a mandated leave. So they, there’s no more for them.
There’s no work for them. And so they’re not, there’s nothing, no work to report to. So a furlough would, for example, in this case, allow you to be eligible for unemployment pay, uh, laid off is you’re no longer with the company.
Your employment has terminated, your benefits have likely terminated or will soon. So that would be the major difference.
Speaker 1: (03:29)
But, but they’re also entitled to unemployment. I mean, these topped up, uh, apply for it. And speaking of unemployment, there’s been a change in that, which is the, the time frame to apply for unemployment.
Speaker 2: (03:42)
The governor of California, Gavin Newsom has waived the waiting period for unemployment checks. So usually you have to wait one week before you’re eligible for unemployment and now that is gone.
So you can get a check, you can start getting an unemployment check as soon as you apply for it. That’s the hope. Um, and also in terms of layoffs, the governor also waived some of the requirements for the warn act.
If you lay off over a certain number of people, usually you have to post notices at the job site. And so the governor’s waive some of those too, given these unprecedented events. Yeah.
Speaker 1: (04:18)
If I’m remembering correctly, it’s been a, I don’t know, a couple of years since I’ve had to deal with the Warren act, but it’s 60 or, if it’s 50 or more employees than it’s 60 days notice.
So basically what you’re saying is that the governor has said, okay, we understand that businesses are shutting down and if you need to lay off, you don’t have to comply with the warn act. So that’s one good thing for business.
I’m not a fan of Gavin Newson, those, that watch my videos know that, uh, but kudos to him on that one because I can imagine, having 50 or more employees and having to pay them along with not making any money.
So if you’re a restaurant that had 50 more or hotel, I mean that, that seems like a, like a better example. Okay. So we’ve got that right.
Speaker 2: (05:12)
Oh, maybe you’ll like get Newsome more because with the unemployment, um, with waiting that waiting period, there’s also a waiver of those requirements that you have to be looking for a job.
So usually when you apply for unemployment, you have to meet an eligibility requirement that says you must be actively seeking work. And in this circumstance that’s going on right now, we’re almost, all businesses are shut down and there’s no work to seek.
Speaker 1: (05:36)
So that, yeah, that’s good. I mean that, that’s the, you know, I’m pro business and there’s no, um, and of course I’m not anti employee, I’m just pro business.
Certainly that helps because that makes sense. What job are you going to be looking for if, if there is none to give.
Speaker 2: (05:53)
Amazon, apparently Amazon going to hire.
Speaker 1: (05:58)
you gotta love Amazon. I think that’s going to be a lot of changes that come out of this. I think number one, people are going to realize that the work from home model is not as bad as people think.
I think technology makes it doable. I’m not opposed to work from home, but obviously there’s a lot of businesses where you can’t do that.
Speaker 2: (06:16)
Yeah. And also you introduce a lot more exposures to the business because when an employee is working from home, you’re still liable for if they injure themselves at home or while they’re working.
So you have all kinds of additional expenses. You may be reimbursing some of their cell phone use or any of their business expenses, internet usage, any of the tools that you provide. And then of course, workers’ comp if they get hurt while they’re at home.
Speaker 1: (06:40)
Well, and another change that I hope comes out of this is pro business of course. Cause that’s the way I think.
But I hope that employees learn or appreciate you guys that have these businesses that spend your time and your money to build these things up and then employ people, you know.
So, because I think that’s what’s been lost in California for a while. But let me get off my soapbox cause I know that this is about trying to figure out this, uh, cobot 19, uh, legislation.
On the federal level, uh, what have you seen as the biggest sort of, uh, change or benefit or what they’re doing?
Speaker 2: (07:20)
The biggest change is that everyone seems to be working together. There was a Senate bill passed this week where all of everyone, both sides of the aisle voted unanimously to pass it.
So there’s a lot of [inaudible] and then you have Donald Trump tweeting that, you know, I hope this gets best and encouraging things and then signing bills and getting them into law, uh, very quickly.
And so as a result, you have these very hastily written laws that it’s great that the country’s kind of getting behind this as an emergency and we need to respond.
But there’s just not, initially, there was not a lot of guidance. It conflicts with existing laws and then it’s not that clear.
Speaker 1: (08:05)
Well, on the federal level, it seems more like bail out style. Right. And tell me if I’m wrong about this, but it seems more like, okay, here’s money for the affected employees and then here’s the opportunities such as loans for, um, uh, for the employers.
The loans, I’ve heard SBA loans, um, uh, I’ve, uh, been getting all this stuff with from Matthew Lesko believe it or not, um, about all of the different things that employers could apply for.
So on the federal level it seems more like bailouts type stuff. And then on the state level it seems more like a temper, at least temporary for now, laws being passed that are enforceable.
For example, today I was at, uh, one of my clients, these a gun store owner and he said something to me because, um, locally on the, um, on the, uh, County level gun stores had been shut down, right?
Speaker 1: (09:04)
So they were shut down yesterday. Then they were reopened again and yesterday and then they were shut down again, uh, in the middle of today.
What seems like a bit of a dispute between what the city wants and what the County wants. And it seems to be just the sheriff fill in the waiver that’s, that’s doing that.
But there was something interesting that my client said. He said, well, uh, they’re saying he’s arguing that we’re not necessary, but we’re only one of two types of businesses that are protected by the constitution. Right.
So you’ve got, you’ve got a media and then you’ve got, you know, the first amendment and the second amendment. What other businesses protect us.
That was interesting. Uh, but what do you think about what’s happening on the County level and some of the things that they’re doing? Are there any things that you’ve run across that you’ve thought were, um, harmful to businesses?
Speaker 2: (09:54)
Cool. So far on the County level, what I’ve seen is that it’s the health officer that’s the presiding person who’s putting out all of the health orders.
At the city level, you have a mayor Garcetti who’s putting out, I think they’re called executive directives. And then at the County level, it’s the health officer, Montu Davis who’s putting out health orders.
Then you have at the state level, Gavin Newsome putting out executive orders. And then of course you have federal, whatever it comes down. So at the County level, it’s mostly health.
Health orders are the, what is it called? Um, stay, Oh, I can’t remember what it’s called. Something about stay at home basically. So stay at home, shelter in place.
There are different for different counties and I’ve been tracking many counties. So, uh, the one here from the health officer’s about, you know, don’t gather in more than people, you know, a group of 10 people and the restaurants and bars, ms clothes and so on.
So it’s health related orders to reduce the spread of the disease. So I’ve seen it to counter.
