August 5, 2020
According to Frattarelli, health checks are likely to require changes in policies at a lot of businesses. Such actions as taking an employee’s temperature before allowing them access to the facility is normally prohibited, but the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has revised its rules to allow temperature checks to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
“As we all know, it was essentially taboo to consider just testing employees because you were concerned about them being sick,” Frattarelli said. “That was always viewed as perceiving someone as being disabled.”
Employers need to make sure that their handbooks do not prevent health checks, and employers should lay out the requirements to make sure the business complies with all of the guidance on how to conduct them.
Also, many businesses are dealing with telework on a level they have never considered before. Employers should remember that state and federal wage and hour laws still apply in work-from-home arrangements.
Frattarelli said the employee handbook should spell out the rules for keeping track of employees work hours, particularly for non-exempt workers, and when they will take their breaks.
“The telework and telecommuting world that we’re all in, even if you have all of your employees back, I think it’s very important to have something in there that’s going to give you that flexibility and set the rules, frankly, for how telework is going to happen,” Frattarelli said.
Stay safe,
Kerrianne Brady
Firm Administrator
McCarthy & Company
Source: Update These Two Handbook Policies in Response to COVID-19. Bob Considine. NJBIA. July 31, 2020.
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