Legal advice: there are many things for an employer to consider when an employee refuses to work due to COVID concerns.
Businesses across industries are cautiously starting to reopen. This means that employers will be expecting their teams to return to the workplace. While the risk of infection remains, employers may be faced with parts of their workforce refusing to return to work, due to covid concerns. So what should an employer do? This is a situation with both legal and practical considerations for both employees and employers.
COVID Concerns
Providing a safe workplace is the first step to bringing employees back. However, it might not be enough if there are other circumstances the mitigate the employee's comfort level. Interactive and constructive dialogue to get to the root of the concerns and to reassure that all necessary safety protocols are in place may rectify the situation. Understanding the issue is an important first step.
In this Episode
In this Member Question of the Day episode, I'm joined by Don Lawless, partner in the Grand Rapids office of Barnes & Thornburg. Don explains the legal circumstances surrounding employees refusing to come back to the workplace due to covid concerns.
Don addresses:
- Leave Options
- What constitutes "close contact"
- Collective employee efforts
- Insurance
- Doing the Wrong Thing for the Right Reason