On January 5, 2021, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors considered an urgency ordinance requiring grocery stores to pay workers an additional $5/hour as “Hero Pay” due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Supervisors Hilda Solis and Holly Mitchell put forth the motion and noted that “as the County experiences a record-breaking wave of COVID-19 cases, grocery retailers have experienced an increase in outbreaks with nearly 500 businesses currently under investigation in the County alone. The inability to practice social distancing consistently at work due to large crowds has ...

Effective beginning December 31, 2020, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health published a Mandatory Directive on Travel (Appendix W) and issued a Revised Temporary Order, both of which require a mandatory quarantine of at least 10 days after non-essential travel outside the Southern California Region (the counties of Imperial, Inyo, Los Angeles, Mono, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Ventura). 

The Order and Travel Directive apply to Los Angeles County residents and non-residents who enter Los Angeles County from ...

On December 28, 2020, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services released 2020-2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans. 

Dietary Guidelines have been published by the USDA and HHS every five years since 1980. The 2020-2025 Dietary Guidelines are the first to include nutritional guidance for babies and toddlers.

The final 2020-2025 Dietary Guidelines rejected guidance from the advisory committee’s scientific report with regard to alcohol consumption and sugar intake. The committee had recommended that alcohol consumption guidance ...

On December 29, 2020, California Health and Human Services Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly announced that the Southern California region would remain under a regional stay-at-home order indefinitely until ICU capacity goes above 15%. ICU capacity is currently at 0% in Southern California.

The Regional Stay Home Order was first announced on December 3, 2020. The order prohibits private gatherings of any size, closes sector operations except for critical infrastructure and retail, and requires 100% masking and social distancing except for certain limited exceptions. The order sets a ...

On December 18, 2020, the Interagency Food Safety Analytics Collaboration (IFSAC) issued its 2018 Annual Report on the Sources of Foodborne Illness. 

The report collects and analyzes foodborne-illness outbreak data for four pathogens - Salmonella, Escherichia coli O157, Listeria monocytogenes, and Campylobacter – and specific foods and food categories that are responsible for foodborne illnesses in the United States. The CDC estimates that, together, these four pathogens cause nearly two million cases of foodborne illnesses in the U.S. each year.

The report found:

A lawsuit has been filed against Cal/OSHA regarding its recently instituted regulations requiring employers to adopt numerous COVID-19 measures. In addition, a separate suit was filed against Governor Newsom for the outdoor dining ban that is part of recent COVID-19-related regional restrictions. 

Specifically, the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) teamed with the National Retail Federation and three NFIB small business owner members to sue the California Division of Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA), the California agency that recently instituted extensive ...

On December 17, 2020, three U.S. agencies: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”), U.S. Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”) and U.S. Department of Agriculture (“USDA”) announced the renewal of the Formal Agreement Among EPA, FDA and USDA Relative to Cooperation and Coordination on Food Loss and Waste. The renewed agreement has a three-year term.

The Winning on Reducing Food Waste Federal Interagency Strategy prioritizes action areas to reduce food loss and waste. As related activities and projects are completed through 2020, the EPA, USDA and FDA will ...

On December 22, 2020, the Department of Labor (“DOL”) announced a final rule revising its tipped employee regulations. The final rule is designed to address and incorporate amendments made to section 3(m) of the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) by the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2018 (“CAA”). That amendment prohibits employers from keeping tips received by their employees, regardless of whether the employer takes a tip credit. It also prohibits employers from allowing managers or supervisors to keep any portion of employee’s tips.

In this final rule, the ...

On December 21, 2020, Congress agreed to a $900 billion stimulus bill, passed as The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 (“the Act”). The 5,593-page Act includes funds designated for direct relief, additional money for forgivable Paycheck Protection Loans and tax relief measures, but does not include funding specifically for restaurants or hotels.

• Paycheck Protection Program Second Draw Loans: The Act sets aside $300 billion in additional Paycheck Protection Loans. Of that, $15 billion is earmarked for live entertainment venues and $20 billion is set aside for ...

On December 11, 2020, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of the Inspector General (“OIG”) released a report finding that the Department of Labor (“DOL”) did not demonstrate that it followed a sound process in promulgating its 2017 tip rule.

The DOL published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking of the 2017 tip rule on December 5, 2017. The 2017 tip rule rescinded portions of the DOL’s 2011 tip regulations under the Fair Labor Standards Act, which were passed by the Obama Administration. In issuing the 2017 tip rule, the DOL stated that the 2011 tip rule incorrectly construed ...