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Utah Manufacturers, 

The UMA’s Center for Business and Continuous Improvement is gathering information to help Utah manufacturers deal with the latest COVID-19 related information. UMA’s Center exists to directly help Utah manufacturing companies enhance their competitiveness, productivity, and performance. 

If you have any questions you would like addressed in future updates, or feedback about this information, please contact the UMA Center Director, Ryan Mecham at ryanm@umaweb.org .
Key Resources
Best Practices for Manufacturing Companies if an Employee
Exhibits Signs of Illness
Provided by Marie-Joëlle C. Khouzam of Bricker & Eckler LLP, counsel to our sister organization, Ohio Manufacturers Association. 

Keeping in mind that the presence of the COVID-19 virus can only be detected by specific testing, here are suggestions for employers to minimize health risks:
  • Be clear with your employees about your plans for dealing with COVID-19. Post information throughout your facility on COVID-19 symptoms, so they can distinguish these from flu and cold symptoms. The CDC, Ohio Department of Health, and OhioHealth all have good resources and printable/shareable posters available online.
  • Continually disinfect your facility. If disinfecting products are in short supply, a 10% solution of bleach water in a spray bottle may be suitable in a pinch (10 parts water to one part bleach). Be particularly careful of high-touch areas like phones, door handles, elevator and alarm buttons, microwaves, coffee dispensers, and stair rails.
  • If operations must continue, try to space out workspaces and limit face-to-face contact. Train employees on how to set up and use online conferencing.
  • Actively encourage sick employees to stay home and not return until they are free of fever (100.4° F or greater) if they have symptoms of:
  • acute respiratory illness,
  • signs of a fever, and
  • any other symptoms for at least 24 hours, without the use of fever-reducing or other symptom-altering medicines (e.g., acetaminophen, cough suppressants).
  • In light of the CDC’s and other government declarations, the EEOC has relaxed the restrictions on employers who wish to check employees’ temperatures. Employers are cautioned to consider who will take temperatures, and what they will do based on the results.
  • Advise employees to call ahead to their health care provider’s office or local urgent care, before driving there. Many facilities are conducting phone screens first. If the person is seen by a medical practitioner, they may be tested to rule out colds, flu, bronchitis or other bronchial conditions that may have symptoms similar to COVID-19. Once these tests rule out other conditions, the employee may be referred for COVID-19 testing.
  • Do not require a healthcare provider’s note for employees who are sick with acute respiratory illness to validate their illness or to return to work – medical facilities are extremely busy and may not be able to provide timely documentation.
  • If an employee is diagnosed with COVID-19, he or she should be sent home or told to stay home. Take steps to determine who has worked in proximity of the employee within the last 14 days and notify these persons of the possible exposure, without identifying the individual. Because the incubation period is indeterminate, it is difficult to determine when the person contracted the virus or potentially contaminated others. You may wish to send some or all of them home for 14 days. Please review the CDC’s risk assessment for persons who have been exposed to or are exhibiting symptoms of COVID-19, and consult with your medical officer as to the radius of co-workers working within the affected employee’s area who should be evaluated. Assure remaining employees you are taking additional precautions, including additional sanitization efforts, directives to self-quarantine, and suggestions to be evaluated by health-care providers. Try to limit gossip, conjecture and fear.
  • Employers are permitted to direct employees (and also leased or temp employees) to stay home if they have a cough, fever, runny nose or other cold or flu-like symptoms. Even if it’s not COVID, other health conditions can affect your staffing.
  • If work from home is a viable option, advise employees to do so and instruct them how to report time if they are hourly.
  • Inform employees about paid time off options your company may offer.
Can You Donate or Produce/Ship Items to
Help with COVID-19?
COVID-19 Components Survey - Can You Donate or Produce and Ship Any of These Items?  

The White House has further inquired about component parts to aid the nation’s COVID-19 response. The National Association of Manufacturers is aiming to quickly collect information about your potential to donate, produce and ship the following components listed below. Click here to fill out the survey . 
COVID-19 Public Policy Items for Utah Manufacturers
Recording of March 20 NAM Call with Vice President Pence, CDC Officials

Vice President Mike Pence joined the NAM on a conference call on March 20 with 3,000 manufacturers. It featured guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, best practices from The Hershey Company and insights from the NAM policy team. A recording of the Vice President Pence, CDC and Hershey portion of the call is available here . Also, the second part of a recording of the policy discussion is available here .
Labor Department Regulations re: Employee Paid Sick Leave Resources

As part of the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division has announced the FFCRA’s paid leave mandates will go into effect on April 1, 2020, for companies with fewer than 500 employees. They have also shared fact sheets for how this will affect employees , how it will affect employers and a helpful FAQ sheet for employers. The DOL has also requested that the public submit questions, concerns and recommendations for the implementation of the FFCRA. The NAM plans to submit recommendations, and we encourage you to provide feedback to help shape our suggestions.
[Repost of Information from March 25]


The Utah Leads Together plan recognizes that markets correct, recessions end, and prosperity returns. We anticipate three phases with a specific strategy:

Urgent Phase

This is the phase we are in right now and is expected to last 8–12 weeks (with a focus on eight) beginning March 16, 2020. The objective is clear: Mitigate the spread of COVID-19 through strict social distancing measures. The strategy is to identify, mitigate, and reduce the virus’ impact before Utah reaches a hospital-bed crisis. A detailed work plan is in place. This phase involves a coordinated public health response, large-scale testing, and a historic economic stimulus. We adapt and we innovate. Adherence to this phase will shorten other phases and accelerate economic recovery.

Stabilization Phase

This phase is expected to last 10–14 weeks (with a focus on 10) and is expected to be the longest phase. The objectives are to make sure there is no backtracking on the progress made during the urgent phase, provide promising medical treatments, and continue to lay the groundwork for a complete economic recovery. In this phase we innovate. A detailed work plan is under development. It is during this phase that private and public sector policies will aid with the economic recovery. Adherence to this phase will hasten economic recovery.

Recovery Phase

This phase is expected to last 8–10 weeks (with a focus on eight). The objectives are to provide promising medical treat-ments and continue the hard work of restoring economic confidence. In this phase we overcome. A detailed work plan is under development. Adherence to this phase will ensure Utah’s economic recovery comes more quickly and in a more sustained way.

These phases, including the major objectives and detailed work plans, create a path for Utah’s economic recovery.

Manufacturing-Specific Guidelines 

  • Increase work space and distance between employees.
  • Minimize auditors, customers, vendors entering your facility and encourage the use of technology.
  • Conduct meetings remotely or hold internal group meetings in larger conference rooms where people can maintain distance.
  • Alter cafeteria practices so people have more space or stagger lunch times.
  • Install disinfectant spray and hand sanitizer locations throughout the facilities.
  • Disinfect conference rooms, office, desk locations down regularly throughout the day.

General Work Site Guidelines 

  • Conduct plan checks electronically or through a drop box outside the office.
  • Determine a time for building inspections when only the inspector is present, ensuring that builders have vacated the site.
  • Establish screening procedure, including temperature screenings, at facility entrances.
  • Restrict access to critical work areas and introduce rotating shifts for workers.
  • Establish onsite accommodations and protocol to manage individuals reporting flu-like symptoms while at work.
  • Increase the frequency of janitorial services for shared space cleaning, including, but not limited to, workstations, countertops, handles, doorknobs, gang boxes, shared tools, and equipment.
  • Service portable bathrooms frequently and provide hand sanitizer in/or around all portable bathrooms.
  • Do not permit communal food on the jobsite or use a common water cooler.
  • Do not permit the sharing of tools or personal protection equipment (PPE).
  • Sanitize reusable PPE per manufacturer’s recommendation prior to each use and ensure it is properly disposed of.
  • Instruct workers to wash hands after removing gloves.
  • Instruct workers to change work clothes prior to arriving home and to wash clothes in hot water with laundry sanitizer.
If you would like to learn how UMA's Center can help you, please contact
Ryan Mecham, Director of UMA's Center for Business and Continuous Improvement, at ryanm@umaweb.org or 801-557-9105.

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