As COVID cases rise and new variants emerge, you might be wondering if it would be appropriate to either reinstate or update your workplace COVID policy. Currently, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) no longer has guidelines for quarantine if someone becomes infected with COVID-19. Instead, the CDC recommends that people stay up to date with vaccinations and take precautions, such as wearing a mask and distancing themselves from others. The CDC also recommends staying home and away from others if a person feels sick or has symptoms which include fever, chills, fatigue, cough, runny nose, and headache. They also recommend people stay home until their symptoms have shown signs of improvement, or until they are fever-free for at least 24 hours. This directive also applies to the flu and other respiratory infections or contagious illnesses.

If you have employees that are considered high-risk for respiratory infections, you should consider revising your COVID policies to keep them and other employees healthy. Although quarantine is no longer required by the CDC, and vaccine mandates are no longer enforceable since the World Health Organization declared that COVID-19 no longer constituted a public health emergency, it is still a good idea to kindly encourage employees to stay home from the workplace if they are not feeling well. Consider re-implementing your work from home procedures if taking time off is a concern for your employees, whether paid or unpaid. Updating sick-leave policies in employee handbooks and gentle reminders of those policies may also be helpful to encourage employees to stay home if they are not feeling well.

If you need help revising your workplace sick leave policies, reach out to the friendly labor & employment attorneys at RKW for assistance.

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