Both federal and state law may prohibit discriminationand harassment based on having a disabling illness.

Employees who contract an illness through work areusually entitled to coverage under workers’ compensation.

OSHA requires employers to provide a safe workplace.This may mean employers may not retaliate againstemployees who raise concerns about safety and healthissues at work, including those related to COVID-19exposure. Also note that if an employee contracts COVID-19 at work, OSHA considers it to be a recordable illness.

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CONFIDENTIALITY

DISCHARGE

NLRA protects employees from being fired for engagingin concerted activity to protest unsafe work conditions.Accordingly, if a group of employees refuses to work withan employee with a contagious disease, and the group’srefusal is reasonable, group members may be protectedfrom any discipline by the NLRA.

All medical information should be maintained inconfidence. Unauthorized disclosure can be a violation ofHIPAA, the ADA, GINA, and/or the FMLA.

Firing an employee because of a communicabledisease may violate a variety of laws such as the FMLA,ERISA, GINA, WARN Act, or workers’ compensation.

Workers’ compensation laws, the ADA, GINA, and theFMLA may restrict your ability to require a medicalexamination, but on the other hand may change when acommunicable disease poses a danger to others.

MEDICALEXAMINATIONS

The spike in unemployment has swamped state agenciesand prompted a massive federal expansion ofunemployment benefits. While COVID-19-related claimsgenerally shouldn’t affect employers’ ratings, some statesmay raise unemployment taxes—and given the stress onthe system, employers should monitor their accounts forerroneous or fraudulent payments.

WORKERS'COMPENSATION

The FFRCA went into effect April 2 to address theimmediate public health crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic.Among other things, the Act establishes a federalemergency paid leave benefits program to providepayments to employees taking unpaid leave due to theCOVID-19 outbreak, expands unemployment benefits andprovide grants to states for processing and paying claims,requires employers to provide paid sick leave toemployees, and establishes requirements for providingcoronavirus diagnostic testing at no cost to consumers.

There are legal considerations employers should be aware ofduring the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic that affects boththeir employees and business.

VIEW ALL CORONAVIRUSRESPONSE SOLUTIONS

QUARANTINES

Public Health Service (PHS) Act authorizes theSecretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) to declarea public health emergency and “take such action as maybe appropriate to respond” to that emergency. Diseases for which individuals may be quarantined arespecified by federal Executive Order to establishquarantine stations, provide care and treatment forpersons under quarantine, and provide for quarantineenforcement.

TOP LEGAL CONSIDERATIONS OFCOVID-19 FOR EMPLOYERS

DISCRIMINATION

OCCUPATIONAL SAFETYAND HEALTHADMINISTRATION(OSHA)

FAIR LABOR STANDARDSACT (FLSA)

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FAMILIES FIRSTCORONAVIRUS ACT(FFRCA)

NATIONAL LABORRELATIONS ACT (NLRA)

DECLARATION OFEMERGENCY

FLSA may require an employer to pay for the time anemployee travels to and from a medical examination ortreatment.

UNEMPLOYMENTCOMPENSATION