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Labor and
Employment Practice Group Leaders
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Practice Group
James E. Baiers
Connie M. Cessante
Anne-Marie Vercruysse Welch
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How Employers
Can Effectively Manage The Swine Flu Outbreak
As reported cases of the H1N1 flu
("swine flu") continue to increase throughout the United
States (160 confirmed cases in 21 states, including two confirmed
cases in Michigan as of May 3), it is important for
employers promptly to take steps to minimize potential employee
exposure, and address employees' concerns about their well-being in
the workplace. The following is a brief summary of what employers
should be doing today to prepare themselves adequately and
reassure employees that the workplace is safe.
A. Stress The Importance
of Good Hygiene Practices and Consider Discontinuing Employee Travel
to Infected Geographic Areas
Employers should examine a wide
range of issues including 1) discontinuing travel into areas where
the swine flu has been reported (particularly Mexico and other
countries the Center for Disease Control (CDC) identifies as having
"high" illness transmission rates), 2) insisting that
potentially infected employees remain out of the workplace pending
confirmation that they do not have the swine flu, and
3) educating employees on the importance of maintaining good
hygiene practices.
If your organization has not done so
already, it should assure employees that it takes the swine
flu outbreak very seriously and takes all necessary precautions to
protect their safety and health. You should also regularly
communicate with employees about the efforts being undertaken by the
organization to avoid a potential swine flu outbreak.
You must also remind employees of the
important role they play in avoiding a potential outbreak. For
example, employees should report any symptoms of swine flu to their
supervisor and, in turn, the supervisor should report the case to
Human Resources for response. Common symptoms include fever,
lethargy, lack of appetite and coughing, runny nose, diarrhea, sore
throat, and nausea. You should also stress to employees the
importance of engaging in good hygiene practices such as:
· Frequent
hand washing
· Regularly using hand sanitizing products
· Covering their nose and mouth with your forearm when
coughing and sneezing
· Staying home when ill, particularly when they have a fever or
respiratory infection
· Avoiding any touching of the eyes, nose, and mouth
You can assist
employees with practicing good hygiene practices by providing
sufficient supplies of sanitizing products such as hand sanitizers, sanitizing
wipes, soap in restrooms and ensuring that its facility is properly
ventilated. You can also limit the potential likelihood of an
outbreak by keeping the workplace clean, particularly those areas
that are most likely to transmit disease such as carpets, restrooms,
door knobs, telephones, computer keyboards, light switches, and
eating areas.
B. Assess Current
Workplace Policies and Need For Business Continuity Plan
You should evaluate your medical or
personal leave policies and modify them, if necessary, to encourage
employees to stay at home if they experience flu-like symptoms.
With many schools now being closed, it is also prudent to evaluate
whether employees should be provided additional time off under such
policies to care for their school-age children who are not able
to attend school due to the closure. You may also want to
consider implementing or broadening the use of a telecommuting policy
which would allow employees to stay home and maintain their
productivity outside of the workplace. At the very least, you
should consider temporarily redesigning work practices to limit
face-to-face interactions of employees in group meetings, and other
large group interactions until the swine flu threat subsides.
You should also determine whether it
has already implemented a business continuity plan in the event of an
influenza pandemic and, if not, consider implementing such a plan so
that operations are not significantly disrupted if an outbreak
occurs. A business continuity plan should address how you will
continue to function with high long-term absenteeism rates, assess
whether (and, if so, what) essential business functions can be
continued with minimal staff, and determine what area(s) of the
business can be performed remotely, if necessary. You should
also identify in the business continuity plan which employees perform
critical job functions and develop plans now to make sure other
employees are sufficiently cross-trained and experienced to assume
critical job functions in the event other employee(s) become ill.
C. Review and Become
Familiar With The 2004 OSHA Pandemic Flu Guidelines
It is anticipated that the CDC and
OSHA will issue new guidance on the swine flu outbreak in the near
future. In the meantime, OSHA has placed a link on its website
for the pandemic flu guidelines it issued in 2004. The
guideline can be accessed at http://www.osha.gov/Publications/influenza_pandemic.html and include
many helpful recommendations on how employers can protect employees
from an influenza pandemic and appropriately respond once a case is
suspected. Although the pandemic guidelines are not an official
OSHA enforcement standard, employers should follow the guidelines
since OSHA could use them as an enforcement tool in determining
whether an employer has violated its general duty clause obligations
to provide employees with a workplace free from known, or recognized
hazards. MIOSHA, which is obligated to maintain health and
safety standards that are at least equivalent to OSHA standards, may
also use the guidelines as a basis for alleging a violation of the
general duty clause if a swine flu case is reported in a Michigan
workplace.
If you have
any questions about the steps your organization should be taking to
respond to the swine flu outbreak, please contact Kurt Graham at (616)
608-1144, or kgraham@clarkhill.com or your Clark
Hill Labor and Employment attorney.
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To find out
more about Clark Hill and our Labor and Employment Practice Group,
visit clarkhill.com
or call 800.949.3124
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