Returning to the Workplace After COVID-19: Your Questions Answered by Employment Experts

Are you concerned about bringing your workers back to the workplace? With many states rapidly moving into the next stages of their reopening plans and offering guidelines for returning to work, employers must prepare for possible scenarios that may arise when they ask workers to return to the office.

Check out these FAQ’s which we discussed with employment legal experts Becker Legal regarding the return to the workplace in our recent webinar.

Can my workers continue to work remotely?

If your business is operating in a state which is still under a phase within their stay-at-home that doesn’t allow offices to reopen yet, then you can continue to keep your workers at home. You can check which phase your state is in here! 

Also, ask yourself, does your worker have to be present in the office to complete their tasks or can they continue working effectively remotely? If you wish to bring your workers back to the office it is important to be aware of specific back to work guidelines.

What happens if a worker refuses to come back to the workplace?

If a worker has been offered work but is uncomfortable about going back to the workplace, you don't have to pay them. If they refuse to return and this is an issue, you are under no obligation to preserve their jobs and you have the freedom to hire someone else. It is important to look at your state's approach and to comply with state guidelines before actioning a response to a worker who does not want to return to the workplace. 

What happens if a worker doesn't want to use public transport to come to work?

Politically state and local authorities are taking precautions to make public transport safer. For example, New York has implemented systems in the majority of subway stations to limit contact points. If public transport is a concern, you should consider other types of transportation and offer a specific amount of reimbursement, for example via Uber. However, this might get expensive, therefore it may only be a solution to offer high-risk workers.  

If returning to work involves some of your high-risk workers commuting via public transport, this may place them in situations where they are more likely to contract the virus thus increasing their risk. You have to be willing to be more accommodating for high-risk workers who have no choice but to commute to work.

Speaking of high-risk workers, what other measures will I have to put in place so they can return to the workplace? 

If a worker is deemed high risk and wants to return to the workplace, you may have to adjust certain functions within their job which traditionally requires them to interact with other people. The EEOC is advising employers to modify high-risk workers’ work schedules and to allow them to work when other workers are not present in the workplace. 

Employers have also been advised to make minor low-cost physical alterations to their offices and explore reasonable accommodation requests of those who are at high risk of falling seriously ill if they contract COVID-19.

What happens if someone in the workplace falls sick? 

It is crucial to control outbreaks in the workplace to keep your workers safe. If you have been staggering workplace hours/shifts and a worker calls to say they are experiencing COVID-19 symptoms, you need to investigate when they were last in the workplace and who they were in close contact with. CDC’s guidelines refer to close contact, so just because someone might have been infected in your workplace, this doesn’t disqualify everyone within the office as they may not have been in close proximity to the worker who was infected.

If a worker wasn’t symptomatic in the office but has tested positive for COVID-19, you need to make sure that that person stays out of the office for the full quarantine period. You should require workers who came into close contact with them to get a test and ramp up your enforcement of face masks.

It also might be a good idea to require those who were in the office during this time to work remotely for a short period. This will provide you with time to thoroughly disinfect the office, you should consider shutting down the office for a day or overnight to fully disinfect the area to ensure it is safe to return to.

Can workers sue employers if they believe they contracted COVID-19 at work? 

The best way you can protect your company against getting sued if an employee thinks they contracted COVID-19 in the workplace, is to have strong policies in place so you can demonstrate that you followed the best guidance available from EEOC, CDC, and OSHA. Document everything. You can find out more information on how to prepare your workplace for the return to work by watching our webinar on this topic.

Disclaimer: The information provided here does not, and is not intended to, constitute legal advice. Instead, the information and content available are for general informational purposes only.