Employers Encounter Employee Turkey Travel Plans

How should businesses handle employee travel for Thanksgiving?

This is a year unlike any other. We have a worldwide pandemic competing with employees swarming airports to be with their families who live in other states despite guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention imploring folks not to travel this year.

My #emplaw partner Eric Meyer and I discussed the competing considerations employers face—first, should we restrict employee travel in favor of workplace safety?

But, as you know, just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should. Messing with Thanksgiving? Probably an unpopular choice!

But, as Eric noted, employers who don’t restrict travel may very well face a workplace petri dish in the next week or two.

So what’s an employer to do?

As we like to say, it depends.

Is there a state quarantine order?

Is your business subject to the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) such that your employees can take paid sick leave for 14 days? What if employees don’t have remaining sick leave to use?

Eric and I consider the dichotomy: employers want to keep workplaces safe while operating the business.

You can watch us wrestle with these employment dilemmas and more here: https://lnkd.in/d9x2a_b

We provide some answers to common employer questions, and discuss the types of lawsuits that have been filed in these situations.

Speaking of the FFCRA, you may remember that it provides 10 weeks of paid leave to care for a child whose school is closed. That means children are invading our workplaces. 

In this video, not one but TWO of my three kids interrupt this recording for no apparent reason despite the closed office door.

Employers, flexibility is key here—the “new normal” is anything but.