Share
Governors in many states, including Connecticut and New York, have issued Executive Orders that will result in non-essential businesses closing – or relying exclusively on employees working from home – for a period of time. Essential businesses, however, will continue to operate and those businesses will want to take steps to minimize the chance of employees getting sick in the workplace. The EEOC recently updated its guidance to allow more medical testing in the workplace, including clear guidance that checking employees’ temperatures is allowed in light of the current pandemic. This right should continue at least as long as the national emergency declaration is in place.
What else did the EEOC update?
- Employers may ask employees who call in sick if they are experiencing symptoms of the pandemic virus including fever, chills, cough, shortness of breath or sore throat. As a reminder, employers must treat this as confidential medical information in accordance with the ADA.
- Because the CDC and state/local health authorities have acknowledged community spread of COVID-19, employers are expressly permitted to check the temperatures of employees. Employers must keep in mind, however, that not all individuals with COVID-19 will have a fever.
- Employers can, and should, require sick employees to leave the workplace.
- While the EEOC recognizes the right of employers to require doctors’ notes certifying fitness for duty upon return to work, the EEOC also noted that with doctors and other health professionals being so busy, alternative means of certification may be necessary.
- An employer who is hiring may screen applicants for symptoms of COVID-19 after making a conditional job offer, as long as it is doing so for all new employees. This may include taking the applicant’s temperature.
- An employer may delay the start date of a new employee who is showing symptoms of COVID-19.
- An employer may withdraw a job offer if it needs the applicant to start immediately and the applicant has COVID-19 or symptoms of it.
Should there be further updates from EEOC, we will note them on this blog.
This blog/web site presents general information only. The information you obtain at this site is not, nor is it intended to be, legal advice, and you should not consider or rely on it as such. You should consult an attorney for individual advice regarding your own situation. This website is not an offer to represent you. You should not act, or refrain from acting, based upon any information at this website. Neither our presentation of such information nor your receipt of it creates nor will create an attorney-client relationship with any reader of this blog. Any links from another site to the blog are beyond the control of Pullman & Comley, LLC and do not convey their approval, support or any relationship to any site or organization. Any description of a result obtained for a client in the past is not intended to be, and is not, a guarantee or promise the firm can or will achieve a similar outcome.
About Our Labor, Employment and Employee Benefits Law Blog
Alerts, commentary, and insights from the attorneys of Pullman & Comley’s Labor, Employment Law and Employee Benefits practice on such workplace topics as labor and employment law, counseling and training, litigation, union issues, as well as employee benefits and ERISA matters.