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• Empire State Development re-issued its essential business guidelines on Thursday morning and there were changes to the language regarding construction. Read the construction language here. Read the full guidelines here. • The Governor announced on Monday that his "NY PAUSE" order closing all non-essential businesses and schools extends through April 29, 2020. • Per federal guidelines from the Department of Labor, companies (with 500 or fewer employees) must have a policy in place to deal with the paid leave provisions for COVID-19 in the "Families First Coronavirus Response Act." Download an editable policy template from here (provided by our colleagues at FCA). We recommend having this as an internal policy on file to make available if requested. • ECA posted and shared a video earlier in the week that demonstrates Best Practices for a Safe Jobsite. • ECA and our colleagues across Upstate sent out a letter to our members regarding pressure some owners are putting on contractors that may put workers in harm's way. We say NO -- worker safety comes first -- and ask that you keep us informed if you are being pressured to work unsafely. • Reminder: U.S. DOL now requires you to post information on both the Paid Sick Leave Act and the expanded Family and Medical Leave Act. Considering that many employees are banned from physically reporting to work, employers can email or direct mail the notice to employees, or post it to their website. Click here for links to the poster, fact sheets and FAQs. NYS also has a poster on paid sick leave, that you can download here. • ECA member firms Hinckley, Allen & Snyder, LLP and Rose & Kiernan, Inc. presented two webinars on COVID-19 related topics during the week. If you missed them, you can find their slides here. • Member firm CINTAS is offering special ECA-member pricing on COVID PPE items such as hand sanitizer and face shields. Click here for pricing and more information More updates and general guidance can be found on our COVID-19 information page at www.ecainc.org/covid-19