{"id":59,"date":"2020-03-05T17:14:11","date_gmt":"2020-03-05T21:14:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/coronaviruscovid19\/?p=59"},"modified":"2020-09-01T10:03:19","modified_gmt":"2020-09-01T14:03:19","slug":"coronavirus-and-the-workplace-a-quick-reference-guide-for-employers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/coronaviruscovid19\/2020\/03\/05\/coronavirus-and-the-workplace-a-quick-reference-guide-for-employers\/","title":{"rendered":"Coronavirus and the Workplace: A Quick Reference Guide for Employers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>With no signs of slowing down, the coronavirus, or COVID-19, presents a potentially serious risk to the safety and welfare of employees and the financial health of companies. Employers must be prepared to address COVID-19 related issues in the workplace without violating employees\u2019 rights and without causing unnecessary confusion.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What Should Employers Do to Protect Their Workforce?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>There is no known vaccine or treatment for COVID-19, and thus the best way to protect the workplace is to avoid exposure to the virus. Based on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention\u2019s (CDC) recommendations, employers should:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Encourage employees to cleanse their hands regularly and thoroughly with soap and water or with an alcohol-based rub, avoid touching their eyes, nose and mouth, and cover their coughs or sneezes with a tissue.<\/li>\n<li>Review cleaning operations to ensure frequently touched surfaces are disinfected regularly.<\/li>\n<li>Encourage employees to avoid contact with sick people and to stay home if they are sick.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Personal protective equipment is a must for healthcare workers, however, it is not likely necessary for employees who are well, according to the CDC. If an employer receives a request from an employee to wear masks or gloves, employers should consider the requests with three issues in mind: whether the employee (1) has traveled to or from an area where COVID-19 is prevalent; (2) is exhibiting symptoms of the virus or has an underlying health condition; or (3) has been in close contact with someone who has COVID-19. The employer may also consider directing such employee not to report to work for a period of at least 14 days or longer, based on current CDC advice.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.duanemorris.com\/alerts\/coronavirus_workplace_quick_reference_guide_employers_0320.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">View the full\u00a0<em>Alert\u00a0<\/em>on the Duane Morris LLP website.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>With no signs of slowing down, the coronavirus, or COVID-19, presents a potentially serious risk to the safety and welfare of employees and the financial health of companies. Employers must be prepared to address COVID-19 related issues in the workplace without violating employees\u2019 rights and without causing unnecessary confusion. What Should Employers Do to Protect &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/coronaviruscovid19\/2020\/03\/05\/coronavirus-and-the-workplace-a-quick-reference-guide-for-employers\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Coronavirus and the Workplace: A Quick Reference Guide for Employers&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[646,10,31,12,682,11],"ppma_author":[1043],"class_list":["post-59","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","tag-cdc","tag-employers","tag-employment-law","tag-guide","tag-testing","tag-workplace"],"authors":[{"term_id":1043,"user_id":6,"is_guest":0,"slug":"duanemorris3","display_name":"Duane Morris","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/843ff6e7a8fe5fc92109b47a45f34b6cf0ea499e6e788db23456c838b0ae6747?s=96&d=blank&r=g","author_category":"1","last_name":"Sullivan","first_name":"Margaret","job_title":"","user_url":"http:\/\/www.duanemorris.com","description":"<a href=\"http:\/\/www.duanemorris.com\">Visit the Duane Morris website.<\/a>"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/coronaviruscovid19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/coronaviruscovid19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/coronaviruscovid19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/coronaviruscovid19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/coronaviruscovid19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/coronaviruscovid19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/coronaviruscovid19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/coronaviruscovid19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/coronaviruscovid19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/coronaviruscovid19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=59"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}