Yesterday, Charlie in Accounting had the sniffles. He hasn’t come into work today. Tomorrow, he calls you in HR and tells you that he tested positive for coronavirus. Does this bit of information change what you’ve been doing? I posted a poll on Twitter yesterday, and here’s the result:
Over the past couple of weeks, we’ve learned a lot more about the coronavirus and how to prepare for a possible pandemic. We know we should be washing our hands, not touching our faces, preparing for folks to work from home when they can, researching business interruption insurance to see if it will cover payroll if coronavirus requires us to shutdown, reevaluating if we can afford giving pay increases in light of financial outlooks, and communicating to employees how to prepare. All of these are important steps to take.
It’s awesome to be prepared. It is also important to look at our obligations as an employer. As a worry-wart employment lawyer, one obligation leaps out when we start talking about coronavirus – the obligation to keep medical information confidential. In a normal, non-pandemic situation, we would not be able to share that Charlie has cancer, arthritis, or any other medical condition. A pandemic doesn’t change this. If Charlie tests positive, we can’t share that with employees. The fact that we know shouldn’t change what we’re doing. Prepare as though it will hit your neighborhood so that when it does, you don’t violate the ADA.
Now, you might be thinking about moral obligations. Shouldn’t we be able to tell Suzy because her elderly mother lives with her or Jamal because his kid gets sick a lot? The answer is still no. We should tell employees now that when coronavirus gets to our area, they will need to make decisions, like working from home or taking increased PTO, as they are necessary and that we’ll be doing everything we can to keep our workplace safe and healthy, like telling people not to come to work when they’re sick. Yes, this is hard.
Review the EEOC’s pandemic guidance. It’s from 2009 but recently re-upped given coronavirus. Here are some key takeaways for you:
- You can and SHOULD increase infection-control practices like handwashing and increased cleanings of offices and surfaces
- You can’t take every employee’s temperature as they enter your offices unless the CDC tells you to
- You can’t ask employees if they have a disease that makes them more susceptible to the virus
- You can’t require employees to get a vaccine as religion and disability may prevent it for some employees
- You can tell employees not to come to work when they’re sick and you can send them home
Instead of waiting for Charlie to get tested, let’s get prepared. Here are some great resources that may be helpful for you:
- Check out the University of Minnesota’s CIDRAP center for all the news and maps that you might need
- Check out Dan Schwartz’s blog for updates on how to prepare
- Joey Price has a webinar on Tuesday (3/10) for HR on how to prepare
- HR Bartender posted some tips
- Listen to Heather Kinzie and I talk about practical tips on how to handle coronavirus on Thursday (3/12) at 4 pm CDT/1 pm AK – no registration necessary!
- Jeff Nowak has a webinar on Thursday (3/12) on preparedness, the ADA, and FMLA
Now, go get some more soap!
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