Opinion | Erin McCool: COVID-19: What should employers know?

Employers with employees who have contracted the virus or who have close family members that need care should comply with state laws in allowing those employees to access the varying paid and unpaid leaves available to employees in the state of Washington.

In Washington state, all employers are required to provide paid sick leave (or equivalent paid leave benefit) to employees pursuant to the paid sick leave initiative that was passed by the voters in 2017.

Every employee in the state should earn at least an hour of paid sick leave for every 40 hours worked. Paid sick leave may be used by the employee for their own illness or to care for the illness of a close family member. Additionally, the paid sick leave law allows for employees to utilize that leave if their employer or child’s school or place of care is closed by a public health authority.

Employers are also subject to the Washington Family Care Act which requires employers to allow employees to utilize any accrued paid time off (i.e. vacation, floating holidays, wellness leave, etc.) to care for a sick family member.

If an employee is seriously ill or caring for a family member that is seriously ill, the employee may also be qualified for Washington’s new Paid Family Medical Leave (PFML) by applying for leave benefits through the Washington Employment Security Department (the ESD).

Employers who have employees that have missed seven consecutive days of work due to serious illness or the illness of a family member should provide their employees with the required notice of the PFML benefits that may be available to the employee.

Washington State has adopted (and continues to consider) some additional emergency measures to protect businesses and employees that have been affected by quarantines, curtailments, or shut-downs as a result of COVID-19.

For example, the ESD has adopted emergency rules extending availability of unemployment benefits to workers that are curtailed or quarantined because of COVID-19. The emergency rules also provide for relief from benefit charges for employers that need to curtail or shut down temporarily because of COVID-19.

For more information about the emergency measures, visit ESD’s COVID-19 website: wwrld.us/ESD and for more information about what benefits may be available to your employees visit: wwrld.us/benefits.

Washington employers should also be aware of their responsibilities under the Washington Law Against Discrimination (WLAD) and the federal Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) to provide reasonable accommodations for employees with disabilities (defined in Washington as medically cognizable conditions).

Those laws also place some restrictions on what information employers may request of their employees during pandemics like the COVID-19 virus. For example, it may be appropriate for employers to send home employees who display symptoms associated with the virus but inappropriate for an employer to require employees who are not displaying symptoms to disclose medical conditions that would make the employee vulnerable to COVID-19 complications.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) drafted guidance for employers dealing with pandemics in 2009 during the H1N1 flu virus and has directed employers to that guidance in response to COVID-19. For more information on the EEOC guidance visit: wwrld.us/eeocfacts or wwrld.us/eeocfacts1.

Additional guidance for business on COVID-19 response may be found at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) website: wwrld.us/cdchelp or by consulting with legal counsel.

Erin McCool is part of Ogden Murphy Wallace’s employment team that includes Julie Norton and Gil Sparks. She can be reached at 509-662-1954.