COVID 19 Q&A PT 2: I think an employee may be sick… what do I do?

What this episode covers

Good morning Ladies and Gentlemen. This is Rhamy Alejeal, CEO of People Processes and I want to welcome you to the People Processes podcast. Here we dive deep into the tools, laws and yes processes that you need to know in order to scale and grow your organization. This is Part II of our coronavirus COVID-19 QA. We're going to be talking about what to do here when you think an employee may be sick or you've received words that they're sick or that they come in contact with someone sick. We're going to go around the actions to take this as Part II of our QA, hopefully you've listened to Part I already. Where we talked about implementing a remote work policy and putting in telecommuting in your organization. Part III. After this we're gonna talk about when an employee can refuse to come into work because of a fear of coronavirus. "Can they refuse to work if they don't have a mask?Can they all be allowed to wear a mask at your retail store?" Like, "How do we deal with that? Part IV. We're going to talk about group health insurance, and its interactions with coronavirus. We're gonna talk about ways to take advantage of what's covered, what's not. Part V. We're going to talk about Wage and Hour. We're going to talk about what we have to pay here if we send people home because they're sick, if they're calling in sick and you don't think they're sick, because they just want time off, like, "How does that work?" We're talking about the wage and hour implications. Part VI. We're talking about liability. "Is this a worker's comp issue? Are we liable as employers if employees come in and get sick?" We're going to cover that in Part VI. For now, check us out. These questions have all come from social media and our clients. So hop on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn. Message me, let me know if you have any questions so we can add them as we go. All right. So here's the first question I get. Can we send an employee to ask them to stay home or leave work if they exhibit symptoms of Coronavirus COVID-19 or just the flu? Like, Should we can wait? Yes, you are permitted to ask them to seek medical attention and get tested for COVID-19. The CDC states that employees who exhibit symptoms of influenza like illness at work during a pandemic should leave the workplace and be made to do so. During the H1N1 pandemic, the EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) stated that advising workers to go home is not disability-related if the symptoms present are akin to seasonal flu, or in that time the H1N1 virus. Therefore, an employer may require workers to go home if they exhibit symptoms of COVID-19 coronavirus or the flu. So if someone's there, and they're sweating, they're looking like a favor, or they're hacking and coughing or they're sneezing. It's like, "Bro, go home, you can't be here." Okay. So, first of all, if they're exhibiting flu-like symptoms, you can send them home. But that goes on to one more thing like what if they're sweating and you go, "Well, maybe I should take their temperature." Can you take the employees temperature at work to determine whether they might be infected? This is a complicated one. The ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) places restrictions on the inquiries that an employer can take into an employee's medical status, and the EEOC considers taking an employee's temperature to be a "medical examination" under the ADA. The ADA prohibits employers from requiring those exams and making disability-related inquiries unless (1) the employer can show that the inquiry or exam is job-related and consistent with business necessity, or (2) the employer has reasonable belief that the employee possesses a "direct threat" to the health and safety of the individual or others that cannot otherwise be eliminated or reduced by reasonable accommodation. Taking an employee's temperature may be unlawful if it's not job-related and consistent with business activity. So...