On March 18, 2020, Congress passed and the President signed into law HR 6201, the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, a broad-ranging response to the COVID-19 outbreak.

HR 6201 temporarily expands the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) to provide paid leave for employees unable to work due to closure of schools and child-care facilities. The act also provides temporary paid sick leave for COVID-19-related absences. HR 6201 will become effective April 2, 2020.

These changes will impact your employment practices. All employers should re-evaluate their leave policies and prepare to implement these new requirements. In particular, notice must be given to employees. See the information and posters below for more information.

You can find the federal act here.

U.S. Department of Labor Information

• Families First Coronavirus Response Act: Employer Paid Leave Requirements
• Families First Coronavirus Response Act: Questions and Answers

Notices/Posters: Each covered employer must post a notice of the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) requirements in a conspicuous place on its premises. An employer may satisfy this requirement by emailing or direct mailing this notice to employees, or posting this notice on an employee information internal or external website. These provisions apply starting April 1, 2020, and continue through December 31, 2020.

• Families First Coronavirus Response Act English Poster from U.S. Department of Labor
• Families First Coronavirus Response Act Spanish Poster from U.S. Department of Labor
• Families First Coronavirus Response Act Notice – Frequently Asked Questions from U.S. Department of Labor

Legal Resources: For more information, including detailed breakdowns of what is in the act and what must be complied with, see the legal resources below.

• Schwabe, Williamson & Wyatt – New Federal Paid Leave Requirements
• Sawtooth Law – Update on Families First Coronavirus Response Act
• Meyer, Fluegge & Tenney – Families First Coronavirus Response Act

 

 

 

 

• National Milk Producers Federation Coronavirus Resources
• What Dairy Farmers Must Know about COVID-19 by Dr. David Douphrate and Dr. Anabel Rodriguez in Hoard’s Dairyman
• Washington Farm Bureau COVID-19 Resources
• Schwabe, Williamson & Wyatt COVID-19 Resource Page
  
  

Steps that dairy managers should consider to protect their workforce, their business and their markets. The webinar was recorded on March 20, 2020 by Robert Lynch and Richard Stup at Cornell University.

You can find a link to the recording here: COVID-19 and Your Dairy, webinar recording.

We also included a PDF of the presentation with active links to important resources. You can find the PDF of the presentation here: COVID-19 and Your Dairy, PDF of webinar presentation.

We have received questions about how to ensure that dairy workers can travel to and from work if limitations are imposed during the coronavirus outbreak.

We recommend providing each of your workers with a letter explaining that the worker is an “essential critical infrastructure worker” because the employee workers in the production of food.

A template of an English/Spanish letter can be found here, along with an explanation document. It should be customized by adding your farm letterhead and other pertinent information. Please download it, open it, and customize it for your use. An explanation document for employees can be found here.

For more information on essential critical infrastructure workers, see this memo from Homeland Security.