EEOC Issues Guidelines with Respect to COVID-19 “Higher Risk” Employees
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has identified certain groups of individuals as “higher risk” for severe illness from COVID-19.
A growing number of states have effected, or have announced, plans that relate to an easing of shelter-in-place and business closure orders. Many of these plans incorporate specific instructions that relate to higher risk employees, including instructions that exclude higher risk employees from worksites, under certain circumstances.
As emphasized in a recent federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) guidance, state re-opening standards that relate to higher risk employees must be interpreted, and applied by employers, in accordance with federal Americans with Disabilities Act anti-discrimination standards.
Employment law attorneys Matt Mitchell and Amanda Thibodeau summarize the EEOC Guidance in our COVID-19 Alert.
Massachusetts Employment Law Blog 