Workplace Fairness

No.

There is no requirement related to federal contractors and COVID-19 vaccination.

No.

No. Federal agencies no longer need to screen employees based on their vaccination status, and the federal government does not treat employees differently based on whether they are up-to-date with their vaccinations. In addition, employees, contractors and visitors aren't asked for proof of vaccination before entering federal buildings. Some facilities in settings that require it will continue testing all employees. See the Safer Federal Workforce website for more information.

In addition, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission requires employers to assess pandemic and workplace circumstances in order to justify mandatory COVID-19 testing of employees. See the Equal Employment Opportunity website for more information.

No, there is no federal law that requires private employers to have their employees vaccinated or submit to routine testing. State laws vary. See the the National Academy for State Health Policy website for more information. Consult an employment attorney if you have questions.

State laws for vaccine mandates vary by state. See the Naional Academy for State Health Policy website for more information.

There are no longer any states requiring people generally to wear masks in public places. Several states still mandate masking for most people in certain high-risk settings, including health care and long-term care facilities. See the AARP Guide to State Mask Mandates for information.

 

State laws for school-related COVID-19 policies vary by state. See the Kaiser Family Foundation website for information on school-related COVID-19 policies by state.

There are no states that have social distancing requirements.

A vaccine passport is a paper or digital form certifying that a person has been vaccinated against a particular disease.

No state requires a vaccine passport requirement. See the National Academy for State Health Policy website for more information on COVID state information.

Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses that are common in people and many different types of animals, including camels, cattle, cats, and bats. Like other coronaviruses, it has come from animals. Many of those originally infected either worked or frequently shopped in the Huanan seafood wholesale market in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China.

Have supplies on hand

• Contact your healthcare provider to ask about obtaining extra necessary medications to have on hand in case there is an outbreak of COVID-19 in your community and you need to stay home for a prolonged period of time.
• If you cannot get extra medications, consider using mail-order for medications.
• Be sure you have over-the-counter medicines and medical supplies (tissues, etc.) to treat fever and other symptoms. Most people will be able to recover from COVID-19 at home.
• Have enough household items and groceries on hand so that you will be prepared to stay at home for a period of time.
• Take everyday precautions
• Avoid close contact with people who are sick

Take everyday preventive actions

• Clean your hands often
• Wash your hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds, especially after blowing your nose, coughing, or sneezing, or having been in a public place.
• If soap and water are not available, use a hand sanitizer that contains at least 60% alcohol.
• To the extent possible, avoid touching high-touch surfaces in public places – elevator buttons, door handles, handrails, handshaking with people, etc. Use a tissue or your sleeve to cover your hand or finger if you must touch something.
• Wash your hands after touching surfaces in public places.
• Avoid touching your face, nose, eyes, etc.
• Clean and disinfect your home to remove germs: practice routine cleaning of frequently touched surfaces (for example: tables, doorknobs, light switches, handles, desks, toilets, faucets, sinks & cell phones)
• Avoid crowds, especially in poorly ventilated spaces. Your risk of exposure to respiratory viruses like COVID-19 may increase in crowded, closed-in settings with little air circulation if there are people in the crowd who are sick. 

The CDC recently issued an interim guidance for businesses and employers to respond to COVID-19, which overlap significantly with OSHA's guidance on coronavirus.

The CDC encourages employees with symptoms of acute respiratory illness such as fevers or cough to stay home until they are without symptoms for at least 24 hours.

Call your healthcare provider and let them know about your symptoms. Tell them that you have or may have COVID-19. This will help them take care of you and keep other people from getting infected or exposed.

Pay attention for potential COVID-19 symptoms including, fever, cough, and shortness of breath. If you feel like you are developing symptoms, call your doctor. If you develop emergency warning signs for COVID-19 get medical attention immediately. In adults, emergency warning signs:

• Difficulty breathing or shortness of breath
• Persistent pain or pressure in the chest
• New confusion or inability to arouse
• Bluish lips or face

Not necessarily. According to the CDC, some people are at higher risk of getting very sick from this illness. This includes:

• Older adults
• People who have serious chronic medical conditions like:
• Heart disease
• Diabetes
• Lung disease

Typically your boss may fire you for missing work due to the flu, but it depends on the seriousness of the flu symptoms you have. If the flu makes you very sick and causes non-typical health complications, it may be illegal for your employer to fire you. The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) protects employees by stating that certain employers may not fire employees for missing 12 weeks or less of work due to serious illness. While it is very rare for courts to prevent employers from firing employees due to the flu, courts have granted FMLA protection to employees that caught the flu and had severe reactions. To determine if the flu counts as an FMLA covered condition, certain factors must be met. The most important factor is that your flu must be considered a "serious health condition." The flu may count as a serious health condition if the following occur:

• It prevents you from being able to complete essential functions of your job for four or more consecutive calendar days;
• It causes you to visit a healthcare provider at least twice, and the visits must be in person and not over the phone follow-ups;
• It requires you to receive continued treatment;
• Even if your doctor advises you to stay home for a week, if the other FMLA conditions are not met, the flu is not considered a serious health condition.

Typically your boss may fire you for missing work due to the flu, but it depends on the seriousness of the flu symptoms you have. If the flu makes you very sick and causes non-typical health complications, it may be illegal for your employer to fire you. The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) protects employees by stating that certain employers may not fire employees for missing 12 weeks or less of work due to serious illness. While it is very rare for courts to prevent employers from firing employees due to the flu, courts have granted FMLA protection to employees that caught the flu and had severe reactions. To determine if the flu counts as an FMLA covered condition, certain factors must be met. The most important factor is that your flu must be considered a "serious health condition." The flu may count as a serious health condition if the following occur:

• It prevents you from being able to complete essential functions of your job for four or more consecutive calendar days;
• It causes you to visit a healthcare provider at least twice, and the visits must be in person and not over the phone follow-ups;
• It requires you to receive continued treatment;
• Even if your doctor advises you to stay home for a week, if the other FMLA conditions are not met, the flu is not considered a serious health condition.

Typically your boss may fire you for missing work due to the flu, but it depends on the seriousness of the flu symptoms you have. If the flu makes you very sick and causes non-typical health complications, it may be illegal for your employer to fire you. The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) protects employees by stating that certain employers may not fire employees for missing 12 weeks or less of work due to serious illness. While it is very rare for courts to prevent employers from firing employees due to the flu, courts have granted FMLA protection to employees that caught the flu and had severe reactions. To determine if the flu counts as an FMLA covered condition, certain factors must be met. The most important factor is that your flu must be considered a "serious health condition." The flu may count as a serious health condition if the following occur:

• It prevents you from being able to complete essential functions of your job for four or more consecutive calendar days;
• It causes you to visit a healthcare provider at least twice, and the visits must be in person and not over the phone follow-ups;
• It requires you to receive continued treatment;
• Even if your doctor advises you to stay home for a week, if the other FMLA conditions are not met, the flu is not considered a serious health condition.

Yes. While FMLA does protect sick employees, you still must call your employer and follow any call-in procedure your employer has established. However, if your illness is sudden and prevents you from calling your employer immediately, then you may not need call in immediately, so long as you DO call in as soon as reasonably possible. If you fail to do so, you will not be given FMLA's protection.

Yes. Generally, your boss may make it a job requirement that you be vaccinated and remove the risk of exposer to infectious disease. If your employer creates such a policies, your employer may fire you for failing to vaccinate yourself or your children. Your employer may assume that having an unvaccinated child could lead to an unreasonable risk that you could catch the flu or another illness, and as a result, your employer is legally allowed to fire you.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ("CDC"), the best option to avoid the flu is to get the flu shot, and the best way to avoid other infectious diseases is to get the corresponding vaccination. For other contagious illnesses do the following:

• Avoid close contact with others when you, or they, are sick;
• Stay at home when you are sick;
• Cover your mouth and nose with a tissue when you cough or sneeze;
• Washing your hands often, with soap and water for at least 20 seconds;
• Avoid touching your eyes, nose or mouth with unwashed hands (this is an important step to avoid catching the flu);
• Clean and disinfect surfaces and objects at work.

For more information about stopping the spread of germs at work, refer to the CDC website.

Zika

Zika is a virus spread mostly by the bite of an infected Aedes species mosquito. It can be passed from a pregnant woman to her fetus, causing certain brith defects. At present, there is no vaccine or medicine for Zika. Symptoms of Zika may include fever, rash, headache joint pain, conjunctivitis, and muscle pain, lasting from several days to a week. If you suspect that you may have been affected, a blood or urine test can confirm Zika infection. The CDC advises that you see a doctor or healthcare provider if you develop symptoms.

To prevent Zika infection, the CDC recommends protecting yourself from mosquito bites. You may do so by using an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)- registered insect repellant containing one of the active ingredients: DEET, picardin, IR3535, oil of lemon eucalyptus, para-menthane-diol, or 2-undecanone.

Ebola

Ebola is a rare and deadly disease that was first discovered in 1976 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Some nations have seen a dramatic increase in the numbers of individuals with Ebola. Recently, there have even been a few rare scares of Ebola in the USA. To avoid catching Ebola the CDC recommends:

• Washing your hands with soap or hand sanitizer;
• Avoid contact with blood and body fluids;
• Do not handle items that came into contact with infected blood or body fluids;
• Avoid bats and nonhuman primates, their blood, their fluids, and their raw meat;
• Avoid funeral rituals that handle bodies of those that died from Ebola;
• For the latest information about Ebola, see the CDC Ebola page.

Measles

Measles is a disease that, in the early half of the twentieth century, lead to the hospitalization of 48,000 people and the death of 400 to 500 people per year. In the year 2000, the CDC declared that measles had been eliminated in the USA because it had not been transmitted for 12 consecutive months. This success was attributed to the success of vaccination policies for school-aged children. However, recently, measles has again begun to break out in parts of the USA.

To avoid catching measles the CDC recommends:

• Get an MMR vaccination
• The CDC states that it there is no link between the MMR vaccination and autism
• Most children have no side effects from the vaccination

Measles is very contagious. You can catch it by being in a room where someone with measles breathed within the last two hours. Nearly everyone that doesn't have a vaccination will catch measles if they are exposed to the measles virus.

For more information about Measles see the CDC measles page.

Under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), covered employees may take up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave for serious medical conditions. Whether any infectious disease is considered a serious medical condition will depend on the disease and the degree to which it affects you. When there is a fear of a nationwide pandemic, and the spread of a disease makes the news, employers are likely to consider the illness serious medical condition.

CDC recommends that employers not require a note from employees who are sick with acute respiratory illness to validate their illness because health care providers may be extremely busy responding to other health needs.

The ADA prohibits employee disability-related inquiries or medical examinations; however, employers may ask such employees if they are experiencing COVID-19, such as fever or a cough and shortness of breath. Employers must maintain all information about employee illness as a confidential medical record in compliance with the ADA.

Yes, under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), an employer may force an employee to stay home if the employer believes that the employee will pose a direct threat to the workplace due to having or being exposed to, a serious infectious disease. This includes employees that are still willing and able to work. Many diseases are very infectious. For example, the Measles virus can be caught if you enter a room where an infected individual was located thirty minutes ago. Sometimes the best way an employer can prevent the threat of exposure to all employees is to require one employee to stay home from work.

No, if an overly cautious employer forces an employee who does not have an infectious disease to stay home from work, this time cannot be charged against the employee's 12-week entitlement under the FMLA. As a general rule, employers are not allowed to charge employees with FMLA leave when that leave is required by the employer.

No, if an overly cautious employer forces an employee who does not have an infectious disease to stay home from work, this time cannot be charged against the employee's 12-week entitlement under the FMLA. As a general rule, employers are not allowed to charge employees with FMLA leave when that leave is required by the employer.

es. According to OSHA, the law that requires employers to provide a safe workplace, your employer does have a duty to protect you from recognized hazards. However, there is no specific duty that details what an employer must do to protect you from an infectious disease.

Yes. If an employee arrives to work showing signs of an acute respiratory illness (such as cough or shortness of breath) or becomes sick during the day, the CDC recommends that the employee be separated and sent home immediately. Advising such workers to go home is not a disability-related action if the illness is similar to seasonal influenza or COVID-19. Additionally, the action would be permitted under the ADA if the illness were serious enough to pose a direct threat.

It depends. Typically employers cannot force you to tell them if you have a disability or a sickness that others are not at risk of catching. However, under the ADA, during a pandemic, an employer may require employees to disclose whether they or their family members have been exposed to an infectious disease.

es. These questions are allowed under the ADA either because they would not be disability-related or, if the employee was believed to have COVID-19, and it were truly severe, your employer would be justified under the ADA standards for disability-related inquiries of employees.

Yes, the ADA does permit potential employers to require medical examinations of entering employees after they have already extended an offer of employment. However, employers cannot administer these medical exams in a discriminatory fashion and must require these medical exams from all new employees in the same job category.

Under the ADA, if there is an outbreak of a serious health concern, then employers are allowed to require employees to work from home. However, employers are not allowed to single out employees to work from home.

If an employee is confirmed to have COVID-19, employers should inform fellow employees of their possible exposure to COVID-19 in the workplace. Employers should not, however, disclose to co-workers the identity of the quarantined employee because confidentiality requirements under federal law, such as ADA, or state law may apply.

Many states do not have laws preventing employers from firing someone who is quarantined by the state, so long as there is no contract or union agreement. However, the some states do have laws that prevent employers from firing any employee or any full-time employee. However, some states do have laws that prevent employers from firing any employee or any full-time employee. For more information on state laws regarding quarantine, visit our Workers' Rights During Public Health Emergencies page.

Yes, workers are generally entitled to unemployment insurance if they are furloughed when a business temporarily shuts down and all other unemployment requirements are met. Depending on the size and length of the temporary shutdown, the jurisdiction may require notification to the applicable unemployment department as a mass separation. For more information visit our Workers' Rights During Public Health Emergencies page.

President Biden's action for the Delta and Omicron Variants includes:

• Boosters for All Adults
• Vaccinations to Protect Our Kids and Keep Our Schools Open
• Expanding Free At-Home Testing for Americans
• Stronger Public Health Protocols for Safe International Travel
• Protections in Workplaces to Keep Our Economy Open
• Rapid Response Teams to Help Battle Rising Cases
• Supplying Treatment Pills to Help Prevent Hospitalizations and Death
• Continued Commitment to Global Vaccination Efforts
• Steps to Ensure We Are Prepared for All Scenarios 

Employees must tell their employer if they are requesting an exception to a COVID-19 vaccination requirement because of a conflict between that requirement and their sincerely held religious beliefs, practices, or observances.  Under Title VII, this is called a request for a “religious accommodation” or a “reasonable accommodation.” 

An employer should proceed on the assumption that a request for religious accommodation is based on sincerely held religious beliefs, practices, or observances.  However, if an employer has an objective basis for questioning either the religious nature or the sincerity of a particular belief, the employer would be justified in making a limited factual inquiry and seeking additional supporting information.  An employee who fails to cooperate with an employer’s reasonable requests for verification of the sincerity or religious nature of a professed belief, practice, or observance risks losing any subsequent claim that the employer improperly denied an accommodation. See the EEOC website for more information.

Yes. Caregiver discrimination violates federal employment discrimination laws when it is based on an applicant’s or employee’s sex (including pregnancy, sexual orientation, or gender identity), race, color, religion, national origin, age (40 or older), disability, or genetic information (such as family medical history). Caregiver discrimination also is unlawful if it is based on an applicant’s or employee’s association with an individual with a disability, within the meaning of the Americans with Disabilities Act, or on the race, ethnicity, or other protected characteristic of the individual for whom care is provided. Finally, caregiver discrimination violates these laws if it is based on intersections among these characteristics (for example, discrimination against Black female caregivers based on racial and gender stereotypes, or discrimination against Christian female caregivers based on religious and gender stereotypes). See the EEOC website for more information.

There are no states that have social distancing requirements.

In California, AB 2693 requires employers to either provide notice (either written or posted on the job site) of potential COVID-19 exposure at the worksite and on existing employee portals.

With some exception, the short answer is “yes.”  In “employment at will” states, employees can be fired for any reason, so long as that reason isn’t illegal, such as discrimination.  There are also exceptions for people in high risk  groups and people with disabilities. See workplacefairness.org for more information laws related to at will employment.

If you have a qualifying disability under the ADA guidelines, you have a right to reasonable accommodations in order to perform your job. If your underlying condition makes you at high-risk for serious complications because of COVID-19 and that condition is covered by the ADA, you may have an exception to going back to the office. An accommodation could be that you continue to work remotely. COVID-19 is also considered a disabiity under the ADA if it satisfies these requirements: 

• An actual disability, which is a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits a major life activity (such as walking, talking, seeing or hearing).
• A history or record of an actual disability (such as cancer that is in remission).
• A perception that a worker has a disability or is regarded as having a disability.

See the Health and Human Services website for more information on COVID-19 and the ADA. Contact an employment attorney if you have questions about your situation.

 

Federal Equal Eemployment Opportunity laws do not prevent an employer from requiring all employees physically entering the workplace to be vaccinated for COVID-19, so long as employers comply with the reasonable accommodation provisions of the Americans with Disabilities Act and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. There may be other state and federal laws not within the agency's jurisdiction that may place additional restrictions on employers, so consult an employment attorney to discuss your specific situation. 

According to guidance from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, emploers can administer viral tests as a condition of entering a worksite, so long as they can show that their testing practices are job-related and consistent with business necessity (this is the standard under the Americans With Disabilities Act). Employers need to assess whether current pandemic circumstances and individual workplace circumstances justify viral screening testing of employees to prevent workplace transmission of COVID-19. See the Equal Employment Opportunity website for more information.

COVID-19 is considered a disabiity under the ADA if it satisfies these requirements: 

• An actual disability, which is a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits a major life activity (such as walking, talking, seeing or hearing).
• A history or record of an actual disability (such as cancer that is in remission).
• A perception that a worker has a disability or is regarded as having a disability.

If you have a qualifying disability under the ADA guidelines, you have a right to reasonable accommodation in order to perform your job. See the Health and Human Services website for more information on COVID-19 and the ADA. Contact an employment attorney if you have questions about your situation.