Employment Representation

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many workers have made the difficult choice not to return to an unsafe workplace or to decline a new offer of unsafe work to avoid the risk of catching the virus. On February 25, 2021, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) released guidance announcing that individuals in these situations, in addition to other categories, may be eligible for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA). PUA is a temporary program created by the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, initially to provide unemployment benefits to individuals who usually do not qualify for state unemployment benefits, such as self-employed and gig workers, but are unemployed because of the pandemic. 

The DOL’s new guidance extends PUA benefits to three new categories of workers: 

1. Workers who refuse to return  to a worksite or accept a new offer to work at an unsafe worksite. The DOL considers a workplace “unsafe” when it fails to comply with local, state, or national COVID-19 health and safety standards. This may include the failure to follow standards related to mask wearing, physical distancing, and providing adequate personal protective equipment (PPE).
2. Certain workers of educational institutions who have experienced reduced hours as a direct result of the pandemic, including changes in schedules and partial closures. Eligibility in this category depends on whether the educational worker has a contract or “reasonable assurance” to return to the workplace in the next school year or term. Generally, an individual who does not have a contract or reasonable assurance to return to work in the next year or term may be eligible for PUA. Conversely, if the individual has a contract or reasonable assurance that they will return to work in the next year or term, they likely are not eligible for PUA.
3. Workers who were laid off or had their hours reduced as a direct result of the pandemic. Before this guidance, PUA was only available to workers who were laid off because their workplaces fully closed because of the pandemic. This category expands PUA eligibility to workers who were laid off because their workplace partially closed and to workers who have had their hours reduced because of the pandemic.

This guidance applies retroactively, meaning individuals who fall under these categories may be able to receive payments for their time out of work that has already passed. However, individuals who filed their first claim for PUA after December 27, 2020 will only be eligible for retroactive benefits for weeks of unemployment starting on or after December 6, 2020. 

The PUA payments are federally funded, but are administered by state governments. Workers should direct PUA eligibility questions to state employment agencies. The DOL estimates that it may take until the end of March for many states to modify their PUA application processes to include these categories and make the benefits available to newly eligible applicants.

This  case began in 2015 when the Alabama state legislature passed a bill to block the Birmingham City Council’s attempt to raise the minimum wage in Birmingham to $10.10. The wage increase would have made Birmingham the first city in the South to raise its minimum wage.

The legislature’s decision to block the wage increase, enacted the day following its effective date, was met with public protests by local low‑wage workers and supporters of the Birmingham ordinance.

Levy Ratner, along with co-counsel, represented the plaintiffs, who argued that Alabama’s legislation that nullified a raise for 40,000 workers was tainted “with racial animus” and violated the equal protection clause of the U.S. Constitution.

Plaintiffs alleged that black wage workers in Birmingham make, on average, $1.41 less per hour than white wage workers, and $2.12 less per hour statewide. Therefore, the Alabama law fell more heavily upon black workers than white.  A three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit found that the trial judge had erred in dismissing the complaint but the full Court of Appeals concluded that the Plaintiffs lacked standing to challenge the law.

The City of New York agreed to pay $155,000, plus attorneys’ fees, to five black and Latino electricians in their claims of race discrimination and retaliation against the FDNY. They were represented by Levy Ratner’s Dana E. Lossia and Robert H. Stroup.

When seven restaurant workers sued their employer for claims of unpaid overtime and minimum wage violations, Levy Ratner’s Allyson L. Belovin reached a settlement of more than $400,000 on their behalf.

Judge Ronnie Abrams of the U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, awarded the plaintiffs’ recoveries ranging from $15,700 up to $85,650 each, and totaling more than 80% of the estimated potential recovery at trial.