CDC’s Updated Guidance for Businesses and Employers Seeking to Resume Normal or Phased Business Operations
The U.S. Center for Disease Control (“CDC”) updated its guidance for businesses and employers to plan, prepare and respond to Coronavirus Disease 2019 (“COVID-19”),FN1 which supplements its earlier guidance published in March 2020.FN2 As states begin to reopen and relax their orders to shelter-in-place or stay at home, the CDC’s updated guidance provides strategies and recommendations for employers and businesses seeking to resume normal or phased business operations, which include the following:
1. Conducting Daily Health Checks: Employers should consider conducting daily symptom and/or temperature screening checks, either in-person or virtually, before employees enter the facility. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) recently issued guidance to ensure confidentiality and to prevent making determinations of risk based on race, age or country of origin.FN3 If employers decide to conduct health screenings, they should make employee health screenings as private as possible to prevent stigma and workplace discrimination. Some states, including Colorado, require employers with over fifty employees in anyone location to implement employee screening systems.FN4 Employers may also use social distancing, barrier controls, and personal protective equipment (“PPE”) to protect the screener.
2. Conducting a Hazard Assessment of the Workplace: Employers are encouraged to perform a hazard assessment to analyze the likelihood of exposure and determine the types of controls or PPE needed for specific job duties. This may include selecting and providing appropriate PPE to workers at no cost, and training employees on proper use of PPE. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (“OSHA”) recently published recommended practices for safety and health programs, which include hazard identification and assessment action items.FN5
3. Encouraging Employees to Wear Face Coverings: Employers should remind employees and customers that the CDC recommends wearing face coverings, especially in areas of significant community transmission. Based on the employer’s hazard assessment findings, cloth face coverings may be appropriate if it is determined that PPE, such as respirator or medical facemasks, are not required (cloth face coverings are not considered PPE). Some states, like Colorado, may require employees and customers to wear a cloth face covering or a medical grade mask at all times.FN4 Employers should also determine whether additional PPE such as gloves, gowns, or sneeze guards may be appropriate.
4. Implementing Social Distancing Policies and Practices: Social distancing practices are strongly encouraged and may be required under state or local executive orders.FN4 Such strategies may include physically separating employees from each other and from customers by:
Allowing employees to work remotely;
Implementing flexible work hours by staggering shifts to limit the number of employees in the workplace;
Increase physical distance with the use of partitions, signs, decals and/or floor markings;
Close or limit access to common areas;
Adjust business practices to provide drive-through services, curbside pick-up, and online click-and-collect shopping and delivery; and
Move electronic payment terminals or credit card readers further away from the cashier and shift primary stocking activities to off-peak or after hours, when possible.
5. Improving Building Ventilation Systems: Because COVID-19 may be spread by people without any signs or symptoms, employers should consider improving engineering controls and buildings ventilation systems, including:
Increasing ventilation rates;
Ensuring ventilation systems are operating properly and provide acceptable indoor air quality based on occupancy level;
Opening minimum outdoor air dampers to reduce or eliminate air recirculation;
Keeping ventilation systems running longer hours or 24/7, if possible, to enhance air exchanges; and
Improving central air filtration systems.FN6
Takeaway
Employers and businesses are encouraged to stay up to date on changing requirements as they look to reopen and resume business operations and are encouraged to consistently update their policies and practices to stay compliant with various federal, state and municipal laws, which are constantly evolving. Please contact the attorneys at Campbell Litigation, P.C. for any questions or concerns regarding compliance with workplace requirements in response to COVID-19.
Footnotes:
FN1: See, Interim Guidance for Businesses and Employers Responding to Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), May 2020, https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/guidance-business-response.html
FN2: Our previous post on March 5, 2020 discusses the CDC’s Interim Guidance, https://www.rockymountainemployersblog.com/blog/2020/3/5/the-cdc-issues-interim-guidance-for-businesses-and-employers-to-plan-and-respond-to-coronavirus-covid-19.
FN3: See the EEOC’s guidance, What You Should Know About the ADA, the Rehabilitation Act and the Coronavirus, https://www.eeoc.gov/wysk/what-you-should-know-about-ada-rehabilitation-act-and-coronavirus.
FN4: See Colorado Governor Jared Polis’s April 26, 2020 Safer at Home Executive Order D 2020 044, which advises on the implementation of mandatory social distancing requirements and protocols, https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6878402-Colorado-Safer-at-Home-order-04-27.html; see also Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment’s Second Amended Public Health Order 20-28 Safer At Home (published May 8, 2020), https://drive.google.com/file/d/1WNrWhGf-8VytCBEuW5bmrSU613MrEkbD/view.
FN5: See OSHA’s Guidance on Hazard Identification and Assessment, https://www.osha.gov/shpguidelines/hazard-Identification.html.
FN6: See the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers’ (“ASHRAE”) Guidance for Building Operations During the COVID-19 Pandemic, https://www.ashrae.org/file%20library/technical%20resources/ashrae%20journal/2020journaldocuments/72-74_ieq_schoen.pdf.