The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) advises most employers to send employees home when they have had a risk of exposure to COVID-19 under the CDC’s definition of “close contact”. ‘agency. Here are the key contact tracing steps that attorneys say employers should follow when following CDC guidelines.
1. Update policies and procedures.
Employees who have had close contact that puts them at higher risk of exposure to the coronavirus should maintain social distancing and self-monitor for 14 days from exposure, according to CDC guidelines. The CDC previously defined a “close contact” as someone who spent at least 15 consecutive minutes within six feet of an infected person, but the focus is now on cumulative contacts.
“Employers should review their COVID-19 policies and procedures to ensure their contact tracing efforts are aligned with the new guidelines,” said Catherine Burgett, attorney at Frost Brown Todd in Columbus, Ohio. “They should also educate employees on the new definition of close contact so they can more effectively monitor their own contacts inside and outside the organization to minimize the risk of spread.”
The policies must apply to all employees, regardless of title, and all employees must be trained on the new definition of “close contact,” noted Janell Stanton, an attorney at Wagner, Falconer and Judd in Minneapolis and a member of SHRM LegalNetwork, which provides affordable legal help to small businesses.
2. Perform a 6-15-48 analysis.
Under the CDC’s new contact tracing rules, the employer must identify employees who have worked within six feet of an infected co-worker, for a cumulative total of 15 minutes in any 24-hour period in the 48 hours before the sick person showed up. symptoms. Or, if someone is asymptomatic, the assessment should include the 48 hours before the COVID-19 test was administered.
Travis Vance, an attorney at Fisher Phillips in Charlotte, North Carolina, calls it the “6-15-48” analysis, which he says is a crucial part of an employer’s COVID-19 response program. The most critical part of the 6/15/48 assessment is determining the duration of exposure to an infected co-worker, he said, especially as the CDC updated its guidelines to define direct exposure to 15 minutes cumulative over a 24 hour period.
3. Interview infected workers (by phone).
When an employee tests positive for the virus, the employer must ask detailed questions about each co-worker the employee has interacted with, the duration of those encounters, and the number of encounters.
Generally, employers are required to keep an employee’s diagnosis confidential. “Given the CDC’s new cumulative 15-minute rule, however, employers should ask the infected employee to agree to waive their confidentiality, to the extent possible, after consulting with an attorney,” Vance recommended. .
“If the employee waives confidentiality, the employer can have frank and more detailed conversations with employees whom the infected worker identifies as potential close contacts,” he said.
If a confidential waiver is not obtained, he noted, the employer can still rely on an interview with the infected worker, but may also want to review other information, such as CCTV, recordings clocks and other resources indicating an employee’s location. whenever.
4. Structure the work to limit and trace contacts.
“A few minutes here and there may be close contact,” said Jonathan A. Segal, an attorney for Duane Morris in Philadelphia. Employers will therefore need to rethink their on-site operations and redouble their education and follow-up on social distancing.
Stanton said, “If your employees are able to telecommute, continuing to foster remote work will always be your best and easiest way to protect your employees from contracting COVID-19 in the workplace.”
If employees must work onsite, employers should encourage them to hold all meetings electronically, even if employees are in adjacent offices, she said. “Emails, phone calls and video conferences should take priority over in-person meetings.”
Some employees, however, must have prolonged exposures to other employees to do their jobs. In these cases, Stanton said, employees should keep a log of all exposures to other employees throughout the day. In some cases, if the exposure is consistent throughout the day, it will probably suffice for that employee to note at the end of the workday that they have spent more than 15 minutes of cumulative time with those specific employees at a distance of less than six feet.
5. Maintain other preventive measures.
In addition to monitoring close contacts, employers should follow other CDC guidelines on preventing the spread of the coronavirus.
“Companies should continue to place high importance on other infection control measures like wearing masks, distancing whenever possible, and encouraging sick employees to stay away from the workplace,” Stanton noted. .
Vance said employers should regularly clean and disinfect the workplace, install air filters in all facilities and increase the number of HVAC system air exchanges.
“Consider staggered start times for shifts and lunch breaks and make other schedule changes that will reduce the number of employees in the facility at any given time,” he added.
6. Train all employees.
“Writing up a clear, concise and easy-to-understand pandemic response plan, disseminating it to all of your employees, and then hoping for the best is probably not enough,” Stanton said. How effective is your company’s mask mandate if you have employees who constantly flout the rules? You ask employees to wipe down office equipment such as printers and scanners after use, but what if employees are in a rush and either don’t do what is asked or forget?
“These well-thought-out policies quickly disappear if employees don’t adhere to them,” Stanton said.
Training is essential to implementing a pandemic response plan. “As we know, many employees don’t take the time to read company policies very closely, so this training, I think, is especially critical for anything related to COVID-19,” he said. she declared. “The transmission of COVID-19 in the workplace is costly for employers on many fronts, so don’t just send out a written policy and hope for compliance.”
Comments are closed.