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CLIENT GUIDANCE - MARCH 13, 2019 - CORONA VIRUS (COVID-19)


INTEGRITY HR MANAGEMENT CLIENT GUIDANCE
CORONA VIRUS (COVID-19)
MARCH 13, 2019

News about the increasing threat of coronavirus have many of our Clients wondering how to prepare their businesses and employees for corona-related impact. We are asking our Clients to help us advise employees and protect against the spread of illness in workplaces, including COVID-19.
Prevention - Hygiene and Hand washing:
  • Frequent hand washing with soap and water for at least 20 seconds.
  • Consider sending out hand washing guidelines, like the CDC’s hand washing website.
  • Use hand sanitizer when hand washing isn’t possible. Use a formula with at least 60% alcohol (per the CDC). Sanitizers can quickly reduce the number of germs on hands, but they are not effective against all viruses.
Prevention – Minimize Exposure and Contact:
  • Avoid close contact with people who are sick.
  • Avoid touching your eyes, nose, and mouth.
  • Cover your cough or sneeze with a tissue and then dispose of the tissue.
  • Advise employees to stay home if they are experiencing a fever or other symptoms of illness.
  • Advise employees to seek immediate medical attention if they experience flu-like symptoms or believe they have been exposed to coronavirus.
  • If employees become sick at work, send them home.
  • Clean and disinfect frequently touched surfaces, such as copiers, elevator buttons, and door handles with a cleaning spray or wipe.
  • The CDC does not recommend the general use of a face mask for people who are well. Face masks should be used by people who show symptoms.
  • Consider distributing hand sanitizer to employees and making sanitizers available in common areas such as conference rooms, lunch and break rooms, restrooms, reception areas, etc.
Employee Communications:
Review Your Disaster Preparedness Plan and Policies:
  • Review and share your disaster preparedness plan in case employees must work from home.
  • Ensure that those who may work from home have up-to-date remote access information and tools. Management, in particular, may wish to be prepared to work from home. Employers remain responsible for assuring that time worked outside the office is properly reported and paid, notwithstanding that hourly paid employees may not have access to the ordinary timekeeping applications, or the supervisory oversight, that typically apply. Different rules apply to exempt and hourly paid employees. Policies must assure that hourly paid employees report and be paid for all time worked, and that activities that constitute compensable “work” be unambiguous and communicated to teleworkers.
  • Ensure you have accurate personal emails and mobile phone numbers. Remember: if non-exempt employees work during non-working hours, including responding to emails or texts or phone calls, they must be paid in accordance with the Fair Labor Standards Act.
  • Consider limiting travel, particularly by air. If traveling, see the CDC’s Coronavirus 2019 Disease Information for Travel.  Employees may not refuse to work or travel based merely on fear of exposure at work. Only where the risk is real as determined by public health guidance may an employee refuse work or travel. The test generally is whether a reasonable person would recognize a risk. Many employers, where feasible, are deferring to employee comfort levels for non-critical travel.
  • Remember: under the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), these and other highly communicable diseases count as “known hazards” under that law which means employers have an obligation to protect their workforces from those hazards.
  • Review OSHA’s Guidance on Preparing Workplaces for COVID-19, COVID-19 website, and COVID-19 standards.
  • Any type of influenza, including COVID-19, could qualify as a serious health condition under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) or state-specific family leave regulations. Generally, companies with 50 or more employees are covered by FMLA and states have differing requirements.
·       The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, or EEOC, guidance reinforces that the identity of an employee with a confirmed case of coronavirus may not be disclosed. However, an employer still must take effective steps to notify or protect others who have been exposed to the employee while in the workplace, and the EEOC defers to the CDC guidelines.
  • Influenza and other viruses could rise to the level of a disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act and state disability statutes. Care must be taken not to discriminate on this basis.
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