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Urgent Updates
What is the latest from the EEOC regarding equal employment
opportunity laws and COVID-19?
Yesterday (September 8), the EEOC updated its technical
assistance document, What You Should Know About COVID-19 and the ADA,
Rehabilitation Act, and Other EEO Laws, which addresses common questions
about COVID-19 and federal employment laws.
The updated document adds 18 new Q&As that have been
adapted from various EEOC resources, including Pandemic Preparedness in the Workplace and the Americans with
Disabilities Act and a March 27, 2020 EEOC webinar. Additionally, the EEOC updated two existing
Q&As (A.6 and D.8) which clarify that an employer, when evaluating an employee’s
initial or continued presence at the workplace, may rely on current
recommendations by the CDC and other public health authorities to determine
whether, when, and for whom testing or other screening is
appropriate. Below are the new and updated questions (responses
are available here):
A.6. May an employer administer a COVID-19 test (a test
to detect the presence of the COVID-19 virus) when evaluating an employee’s
initial or continued presence in the workplace? (4/23/20; updated 9/8/20 to
address stakeholder questions about updates to CDC guidance)
A.8. May employers ask all employees physically entering
the workplace if they have been diagnosed with or tested for COVID-19?
(9/8/20; adapted from 3/27/20 Webinar Question 1)
A.9. May a manager ask only one employee—as opposed to
asking all employees—questions designed to determine if she has COVID-19, or
require that this employee alone have her temperature taken or undergo other
screening or testing? (9/8/20; adapted from 3/27/20 Webinar Question 3)
A.10. May an employer ask an employee who is physically
coming into the workplace whether they have family members who have COVID-19
or symptoms associated with COVID-19? (9/8/20; adapted from 3/27/20 Webinar
Question 4)
A.11. What may an employer do under the ADA if an
employee refuses to permit the employer to take his temperature or refuses to
answer questions about whether he has COVID-19, has symptoms associated with
COVID-19, or has been tested for COVID-19? (9/8/20; adapted from 3/27/20
Webinar Question 2)
A.12. During the COVID-19 pandemic, may an employer
request information from employees who work on-site, whether regularly or
occasionally, who report feeling ill or who call in sick? (9/8/20; adapted
from Pandemic Preparedness Question 6)
A.13. May an employer ask an employee why he or she has
been absent from work? (9/8/20; adapted from Pandemic Preparedness Question
15)
A.14. When an employee returns from travel during a
pandemic, must an employer wait until the employee develops COVID-19 symptoms
to ask questions about where the person has traveled? (9/8/20; adapted from
Pandemic Preparedness Question 8)
B.5. Suppose a manager learns that an employee has
COVID-19, or has symptoms associated with the disease. The manager knows she
must report it but is worried about violating ADA confidentiality. What
should she do? (9/8/20; adapted from 3/27/20 Webinar Question 5)
B.6. An employee who must report to the workplace knows
that a coworker who reports to the same workplace has symptoms associated
with COVID-19. Does ADA confidentiality prevent the first employee from
disclosing the coworker's symptoms to a supervisor? (9/8/20; adapted from
3/27/20 Webinar Question 6)
B.7. An employer knows that an employee is teleworking
because the person has COVID-19 or symptoms associated with the disease, and
that he is in self-quarantine. May the employer tell staff that this
particular employee is teleworking without saying why? (9/8/20; adapted from
3/27/20 Webinar Question 7)
B.8. Many employees, including managers and supervisors,
are now teleworking as a result of COVID-19. How are they supposed to keep
medical information of employees confidential while working remotely?
(9/8/20; adapted from 3/27/20 Webinar Question 9)
D.8. May an employer invite employees now to ask for
reasonable accommodations they may need in the future when they are permitted
to return to the workplace? (4/17/20; updated 9/8/20 to address stakeholder
questions)
D.14. When an employer requires some or all of its
employees to telework because of COVID-19 or government officials require
employers to shut down their facilities and have workers telework, is the
employer required to provide a teleworking employee with the same reasonable
accommodations for disability under the ADA or the Rehabilitation Act that it
provides to this individual in the workplace? (9/8/20; adapted from
3/27/20 Webinar Question 20)
D.15. Assume that an employer grants telework to
employees for the purpose of slowing or stopping the spread of COVID-19. When
an employer reopens the workplace and recalls employees to the worksite, does
the employer automatically have to grant telework as a reasonable
accommodation to every employee with a disability who requests to continue
this arrangement as an ADA/Rehabilitation Act accommodation? (9/8/20;
adapted from 3/27/20 Webinar Question 21)
D.16. Assume that prior to the emergence of the COVID-19
pandemic, an employee with a disability had requested telework as a
reasonable accommodation. The employee had shown a disability-related need
for this accommodation, but the employer denied it because of concerns that
the employee would not be able to perform the essential functions remotely.
In the past, the employee therefore continued to come to the workplace. However,
after the COVID-19 crisis has subsided and temporary telework ends, the
employee renews her request for telework as a reasonable accommodation. Can
the employer again refuse the request? (9/8/20; adapted from 3/27/20 Webinar
Question 22)
D.17. Might the pandemic result in excusable delays
during the interactive process? (9/8/20; adapted from 3/27/20 Webinar
Question 19)
D.18. Federal agencies are required to have timelines in
their written reasonable accommodation procedures governing how quickly they
will process requests and provide reasonable accommodations. What happens if
circumstances created by the pandemic prevent an agency from meeting this
timeline? (9/8/20; adapted from 3/27/20 Webinar Question 19)
F.2. What are additional EEO considerations in planning
furloughs or layoffs? (9/8/20; adapted from 3/27/20 Webinar Question 13)
H.2. If an employer is choosing to offer flexibilities to
other workers, may older comparable workers be treated less favorably based
on age? (9/8/20; adapted from 3/27/20 Webinar Question 12)
Further Updates
How has the virus affected criminal justice in Texas?
The Texas Municipal Courts Education Center is your go-to
resource for all things municipal court. TMCEC’s Ryan Turner and
Elizabeth Rozacky prepared a “five hot topics in criminal justice” paper for the State
Bar of Texas that should be of interest to law enforcement and municipal
court personnel during Coronavirus.
Where can I find archived issues of the TML Coronavirus
Updates?
TML Coronavirus Updates are archived by date here and by subject here.
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