It’s 2021, and we are still in the throes of the COVID-19 pandemic. As more and more businesses reopen and some companies transition from remote to on-site workplaces, it’s natural for many people to feel concern about encountering the coronavirus at work. As such, COVID-19 safe practices for the workplace are probably here to stay, at least for the foreseeable future. Vaccines are helping, but the CDC continues to recommend that people “Take precautions in public like wearing a well-fitted mask and physical distancing.”
Reports also indicate that substance abuse, which increased significantly between 2018 and 2019, rose dramatically during the pandemic.
“According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as of June 2020, 13% of Americans reported starting or increasing substance use as a way of coping with stress or emotions related to COVID-19. Overdoses have also spiked since the onset of the pandemic.”
Workplace safety has always been a top priority for employers, but with concerns about COVID-19 on everyone’s minds, it is now more complicated than ever before. Testing, vaccinations and return-to-work/stay-at-work policies now go hand-in-hand with workplace drug and alcohol testing as essential components of an overall comprehensive, effective and legally defensible safety program. Understanding each of these components is of paramount importance.
Workplace COVID-safe practices include keeping all work areas sanitized throughout the day, requiring workers to wear a facial covering at all times while on company premises or while representing the company and practicing CDC-recommended social distancing.
As long as the CDC continues to consider COVID-19 to be a “direct threat” to the safety of others in the workplace, the EEOC allows inquiring about COVID-19 symptoms, temperature checks and COVID-19 testing of those who physically come to the workplace and are around others. Testing of employees who work from home or who work alone is not permitted. The EEOC has determined that employers may not conduct or require antibody testing for COVID-19.