Getting sick can sometimes cause far more problems with your employer than you might imagine. Can you be fired for getting sick, or forced to stay home when a family member is sick? What do you do if you contract a serious contagious illness? What can employers do when there is an identified health risk or pandemic in the news, like swine flu, Ebola, or measles? It is important for workers and employers alike to know what employment actions are lawful in the face of serious illnesses, and how individuals and companies can protect themselves when infectious diseases are going around.
No, symptom screening is not required. For more information, see the Safer Federal Task Force FAQs.
To be consistent with Safer Federal Workforce Task Force guidance, agencies should not implement COVID-19 serial screening testing in other Federal facilities, or for other settings, roles, and functions within Federal facilities, beyond those identified by agencies for high-risk settings, as described below, absent an approved exception from the agency head following consultation with the agency COVID-19 Coordination Team, including the agency Office of General Counsel, and the Safer Federal Workforce Task Force.
CDC guidance states that, “Screening testing can provide important information to limit transmission and outbreaks in high-risk congregate settings.” Following consultation with the agency COVID-19 Coordination Team, including the agency Office of General Counsel, and the Safer Federal Workforce Task Force, agencies may establish COVID-19 serial screening testing programs for employees (or employees and onsite contractor employees) working in high-risk settings within Federal facilities.
For the purposes of Safer Federal Workforce Task Force guidance, and consistent with CDC guidance, high-risk settings include certain Federal facilities—or certain specific settings within Federal facilities—where (1) COVID-19 transmission risk is high, and (2) the population present onsite is at high risk of severe outcomes from COVID-19 or there is limited access to healthcare. Examples of such settings provided by CDC include, “High-risk congregate settings, such as assisted living facilities, correctional facilities, and homeless shelters, that have demonstrated high potential for rapid and widespread virus transmission to people at high risk for severe illness” and “Settings that involve close quarters and that are isolated from healthcare resources (e.g., fishing vessels, wildland firefighter camps, or offshore oil platforms).”
See the Safer Federal Workfoce website for morei information.
No, private employers are not required to have their employees vaccinated or submit to routine testing. However, healthcare workers at Medicare- and Medicaid-certified providers and suppliers must be vaccinated.
State laws for vaccine mandates vary by state. See the Kaiser Family Foundation website for information on vaccine mandates by state. See the Naional Academy for State Health Policy website.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention mask information can be found here.
State laws for mask mandates vary by state. See the AARP Guide to State Mask Mandates for information on mask requirements by state.
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.
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. New York has a program called Excelsior Pass that is a secure, digital proof of your COVID-19 vaccination or negative test results. It is only accepted by participating businesses and venues. Through the Safe Travels Hawaii Program, fully vaccinated individuals may enter Hawaii without pre-travel testing/quarantining by uploading their vaccination record onto Safe Travels and printing it prior to departure so that it is in hand when arriving in Hawaii.
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.
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.
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.
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.
- 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
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.