By Rose Law Group Partner, Coronavirus Task Force Team Member, David McDowell
My employee just announced to the entire production line that his child has the virus. What do I do?
Unfortunately, this isn’t an uncommon occurrence but there are steps you, as an employer can do to protect your employees, comply with Arizona law, and accommodate workers who don’t want to be at work and risk exposure. Under Arizona law employees are guaranteed paid sick time – if this employee has not used his sick time, consider sending him home and using paid sick time to compensate him for his time away from work. Consider temporary work-from-home rules that will allow this employee and others to work remotely during the time they need to care for sick family members or avoid exposure to others. Review your PST/PTO/Vacation policy to see if you can accommodate employees who cannot work remotely but do not want to be at the principal place of business. If an employee takes time off, with or without pay, do you have to keep their position open – check the FMLA rules.
Each situation is different, so please contact us for further help addressing your office’s particular situation.
