COVID-19 Update March 26, 2020

Today’s update:

Attached is a copy of the bill that passed the senate today, if you care to read through it. The House is supposed to vote on it tomorrow and the President said he would sign it.

There are bound to be some minor changes before the final passage into law, so be careful not to spend too much time on this in its current format.

Also attached is a form we have put together that has good basic info about the new FFCRA that was passed last week. It has additional links to info. If you want to dig deeper of feel free to call us with questions.

We have an opportunity to work with our client, Colby Marine Supply, and get you access to safety supplies. Here is a list of available items and their costs:

• Gloves: Nitrile – Black (L/XL) 100 count – 9.89/box
• Nitrile w/grip – Black (L/XL) 50 count – 8.79/box
• Disinfectant: Wipes – Waiting on price
• Spray – Waiting on price
• N-95 Respirators: Bulk Only Item (min 1200 respirators) $4.07ea (per respirator) – Minimum Purchase of $4,884.00
• Bioprotectus Hand Sanitizer: New technology; one application lasts 6-8 hours
  1 Case (four 1-gal containers) $193.56

Delta is offering you the ability to purchase these items through us, and then we will add the cost to your payroll invoice. We will then send the money directly to Colby. We very much appreciate Colby Marine Supply for allowing us to help our clients! Please reach out to Dassafety@deltapeo.com for more info.

In the webinars and calls today, the information is coming out clear as mud!! The details are not flowing as readily as needed, but there were a couple if items that I did want to share.

First, a point of clarification, people that are not working due to the municipal order to stay home after the new law goes into effect are not eligible for the sick leave or the FMLA leave the way we interpret it.

Employees are only eligible if they are home due to being sick or infected or if they are at home taking care of someone that is sick or infected. Employees may also be eligible if they have a child whose school or place of care is closed due to the virus. Just because there are stay-at-home orders from a local or state government does not make an employee eligible for leave.

Of course, the DOL may come out tomorrow and change all that.

Secondly, you should have the option to rehire anyone that has been laid off due to covid-19 and start to pay them if this new bill passes. There are still lots of details that must be worked out. For instance, if you pay an employee and that employee is not allowed to come back to work, are you still eligible for the reimbursement?

We have many other questions that are unknown at this point but will get you the info as soon as the government gives us the details.

I will leave you with some interesting information about our industry in general. Being on the board at our national association, Napeo, gives us lots of insight into what may be coming.

Napeo has joined together with other associations (on behalf of PEOs like ours or payroll processors) to ask the IRS that we be able apply for the stimulous payroll repayments directly for our clients. The new stimulus bill is to be voted on tomorrow. We believe acting on our clients’ behalf is going to take a large burden off the SBA and allow our clients to get money back quicker. It’s a little blue sky right now, but thought you would like to know this.

This has nothing to do with the SBA loan program you can apply for as a small business, it’s only for the payroll reimbursement expenses that are proposed in the new bill.

Our plans are to hold a webinar early next week to go through the newly passed legislation (fingers crossed!!).

More to come on that once confirmation of the law goes into effect.