Continued hospitalizations, new COVID variants, reemerging mask mandates, and further discussions around vaccination requirements in the workplace make it clear that the COVID crisis is far from over. Needless to say, there's a lot of worry and an avalanche of questions from business owners and community leaders at any given moment. What are you doing to prepare for COVID crisis 2.0? Join Rea & Associates and Critchfield, Critchfield & Johnston for a free, hour-long webinar that will help your small- to mid-sized businesses prepare for the next wave of COVID while protecting your organization and employees during continued uncertainty. Our HR and legal experts will be on hand to answer your questions regarding new COVID cases, CDC guidelines, FFCRA leave, vaccination requirements, and more Learn More About The COVID 2.0 Crisis From Industry Experts Join Renee West, SHRM-SCP, PHR, senior manager and HR consulting lead at Rea & Associates, and Kimberly Hall, chair of the employment law practice group at Critchfield, Critchfield & Johnston, to learn answers to some of the most frequently asked questions regarding COVID this fall. Specifically, during this free, one-hour long presentation, attendees will learn more about: - How to handle new positive COVID cases among employees. - Ensuring there is proper COVID protocol established for your organization and safety guidelines already in place. - Whether your business can require vaccination and if such a policy makes sense for your business. - Can employers require a vaccine for employees. - How the delta variant covid threat is different. - If mask mandates are coming back and whether employers can implement such requirements. - Insight into OSHA guidance - What to do to protect your business from a compliance standpoint. Insight into CDC guidelines, FFCRA, and much more! The duo will also set aside time during the presentation to answer your questions on the subject of COVID and how your business can address specific challenges. #COVID2.0 #vaccinations #maskmandates #HRConsulting #OhioCPAF irm

3. Agenda
• Continued COVID Employer Practices
• New Concerns – Delta
• Positive Cases – What is process?
• Quarantine Guidelines
• FFCRA Leave
• Payroll Tax Credit
• Potential for workplace closures
• CDC & State Updates
• Continued COVID Employer Practices
• CDC & State Updates
• Legal Review
• Vaccine Requirements
• Mask Issues

4. Agenda
• Employer Best Practices
• Employee Handbooks & Policies
• Employer Best Safety Practices
• What Should Employers Be Prepared For?

5. New Concerns
• Delta Variant
• Workplace safety guidelines from federal, state and local
authorities are rapidly changing in response to the
highly transmittable COVID-19 Delta variant, and
employers may want to update their policies
accordingly.
• CDC COVID Data Tracker

7. Employee Positive COVID Cases
• What should employers continue to do if
employees’ test positive for COVID?
• Employee Safety – Main Priority
• Quarantine Guidelines
• Vaccinated or Non Vaccinated
• What should employers continue to do if employees’ test
positive for COVID?

8. Employee Positive COVID Cases
• Myths vs. Facts –
• If we are an essential employer, we don’t need to follow
CDC guidelines for quarantine if COVID case is reported
in workplace.
• False – Even essential employers are still required to follow
COVID Quarantine protocols.

9. Quarantine – CDC Recommendations
• Quarantine if you have been in close contact (within 6 feet of someone
for a cumulative total of 15 minutes or more over a 24-hour period)
with someone who has COVID-19, unless you have been fully
vaccinated.
• People who are fully vaccinated do NOT need to quarantine after
contact with someone who had COVID-19 unless they have symptoms.
• However, fully vaccinated people should get tested 3-5 days after their
exposure, even they don’t have symptoms and wear a mask indoors in
public for 14 days following exposure or until their test result is negative.

10. Quarantine – CDC Recommendations
What to do
• Stay home for 14 days after your last contact with a person
who has COVID-19.
• Watch for fever (100.4◦F), cough, shortness of breath, or
other symptoms of COVID-19.
• If possible, stay away from people you live with, especially
people who are at higher risk for getting very sick from
COVID-19.

11. Quarantine – CDC Recommendations
• You may be able to shorten your quarantine
• Your local public health authorities make the final decisions
about how long quarantine should last, based on local
conditions and needs. Follow the recommendations of your
local public health department if you need to quarantine.
Options they will consider include stopping quarantine
• After day 10 without testing
• After day 7 after receiving a negative test result (test must
occur on day 5 or later

12. FFCRA

13. FFCRA

14. FFCRA Payroll Tax Credits
• Relief Bill allows employers to receive payroll tax
credit for providing emergency sick leave or
emergency family and medical leave through
September 30, 2021 for purposes below:
• To recover costs of providing required FFCRA leave in 2020 AND
• Voluntarily provide paid emergency sick leave and emergency
family and medical leave through September 2021.

15. FFCRA Payroll Tax Credits
• What are employer options regarding offer paid
leave?
• Consider continued COVID-19 cases increasing.
• FFCRA paid leave can be a good for employers wishing to assist
employees during these challenging times.
• Help with retention of workforce.
• Ensure documentation requirements are met for
leave.
• FFCRA Leave Form & Utilization of Payroll Code for wages
paid through September 30, 2021.

16. What Should Employers Be Prepared For?
• Many employers are in a better spot this year vs. early in
March 2020.
• A majority of the policies that were put in place when the
pandemic started should have equal application when
dealing with variants
• Employers should be prepared to respond to more requests
to work from home and explore reasonable
accommodations for workers who have disability-related
concerns, he noted.

17. What Should Employers Be Prepared For?
• Potential extension of FFCRA Leave Eligibility past
September 30, 2021.
• Additional Mask Mandates based on Governor’s
Orders.
• Possible request to install protectors etc. for social
distancing.
• Stay Tuned……

18. Employee Handbooks – Policies
• Review of leave policies
• ADA
• FMLA
• Leave of Absences
• If offering FFCRA how does this impact other leaves?
• Remote Workplace Policy
• Hybrid Work Schedules

20. Overview
Masks
• Must Ohio employers require unvaccinated employees to
wear masks?
• Are employers at risk if they don’t follow CDC/OSHA
guidance?
Vaccines
• Is it legal for employers to mandate that employees receive
the COVID-19 vaccine as a condition of employment?
• What are the legal limitations on mandatory vaccination
policies?
• What alternatives are there to mandatory vaccination
policies?

21. Masks
• Ohio
• State-wide mask mandate no longer in effect.
• Federal
• CDC
• “Guidance”
• OSHA
• “Guidance”, not regulations/rules (except in the healthcare
context).

22. Masks
• CDC Guidance
• In May, CDC stated in was generally safe for fully
vaccinated individuals to go mask-less.
• However, CDC issued updated guidance on July 27, 2021.
• Added a recommendation for fully vaccinated people to wear a
mask in public indoor settings in areas of substantial or high
transmission.
• CDC website has an map showing areas of substantial and high
transmission. https://COVID.cdc.gov/COVID-data-
tracker/#county-view
• As of August 3, 2021, Wayne County, Ohio is designated as an
area of “substantial” transmission.

23. Masks
• OSHA Guidance
• “The recommendations are advisory in nature and
informational in content, and are intended to assist
employers in providing a safe and healthful workplace free
from recognized hazards that are causing or likely to cause
death or serious physical harm.”
• Except for workplace settings covered by OSHA's Emergency
Temporary Standards (ETS) and mask requirements for
public transportation, most employers no longer need to
take steps to protect their workers from COVID-19 exposure
in any workplace, or well-defined portions of a workplace,
where all employees are fully vaccinated. Employers should
still take steps to protect unvaccinated or otherwise at-risk
workers in their workplaces, or well-defined portions of
workplaces.

24. Masks
• OSHA Guidance
• Grant paid time off for employees to get vaccinated.
• Instruct any workers who are infected, unvaccinated workers who have had
close contact with someone who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, and all
workers with COVID-19 symptoms to stay home from work.
• Implement physical distancing for unvaccinated and otherwise at-risk workers in
all communal work areas.
• Provide unvaccinated and otherwise at-risk workers with face coverings or
surgical masks, unless their work task requires a respirator or other PPE.
• Educate and train workers on your COVID-19 policies and procedures using
accessible formats and in language they understand.
• Suggest that unvaccinated customers, visitors, or guests wear face coverings.
• Maintain Ventilation Systems.
• Perform routine cleaning and disinfection.
• Record and report COVID-19 infections and deaths.
• Implement protections from retaliation and set up an anonymous process for
workers to voice concerns about COVID-19-related hazards.

25. Masks
• Are employers required to follow “guidance”?
• Guidance is not the same as a law or regulation.
• However, OSHA reminds us that OSHA’s “General Duty
Clause, Section 5(a)(1), requires employers to provide
their workers with a safe and healthful workplace free
from recognized hazards that are causing or likely to
cause death or serious physical harm.”
• Following guidance can help ensure a safe workplace.

26. Masks
• Are there risks in not following “guidance”?
• Possibly
• High-risk employees could be exposed to COVID-19 due to
unvaccinated co-workers not wearing masks. You don’t always
know who is high-risk.
• Increased exposure to workers’ compensation claims?
• Negligence claims by customers?
• Unemployment claims if employees argue “just cause” for
quitting job due to safety issues?
• A formal policy of going against guidance could be used as
evidence.

27. Masks
• Best Practices
• Continue following CDC and OSHA guidance
• (Easier said than done)

28. Mandatory Vaccine Policies
• Employers may implement mandatory vaccine
policies.
• However:
• ADA
• Title VII
• Employee relations issue?
• Some states have been considering legislation that
would prevent employers from requiring their
employees to be vaccinated. No such law in Ohio
has passed.

29. ADA/Title VII
• The EEO laws, including the ADA, continue to apply
during the time of the COVID-19 pandemic, but
they do not prevent employers from following the
guidelines made by the CDC or state/local public
health authorities about steps employers should
take regarding COVID-19.
• Guidance from public health authorities is likely to
change as the COVID-19 pandemic evolves.
Therefore, employers should continue to follow
the most current information on maintaining
workplace safety.

30. ADA/Title VII
• Accommodation requirements:
• ADA: accommodation due to disability
• Title VII: accommodation due to sincerely-held religious
belief

31. ADA/Title VII
• ADA accommodation process:
• Employee requests exemption to vaccine mandate due
to disability
• Interactive process
• Provide reasonable accommodation that does not pose
an undue hardship (significant difficulty or expense)
August 6, 2021 31

32. ADA/Title VII
• Consider:
• Amount of employees who have been vaccinated
• Amount of unvaccinated employee’s contact with others
• Unvaccinated employee’s position

33. ADA/Title VII
• Reasonable accommodation examples:
• Provide masks, gloves and PPE
• Allow remote work

34. ADA/Title VII
• Managers and supervisors responsible for
communicating with employees about compliance
with the employer’s vaccination requirement
should know how to recognize an accommodation
request from an employee with a disability and
know to whom the request should be referred for
consideration.

35. ADA/Title VII
• The employer cannot disclose that an employee is
receiving a reasonable accommodation or retaliate
against an employee for requesting an
accommodation.

36. ADA/Title VII
• The ADA requires employers to keep any employee
medical information obtained in the course of the
vaccination program confidential.

37. ADA/Title VII
• Q: Is asking or requiring an employee to show
proof of receipt of a COVID-19 vaccination a
disability-related inquiry restricted by the ADA?

38. ADA/Title VII
• A: No. Simply requesting proof of receipt of a COVID-
19 vaccination is not likely to elicit information about a
disability and, therefore, is not a disability-related
inquiry.
• However, asking why an individual did not receive a
vaccination may elicit information about a disability
and would be subject to the pertinent ADA standard
that they be “job-related and consistent with business
necessity.”
• If an employer requires employees to provide proof
that they have received a COVID-19 vaccination from a
pharmacy or their own health care provider, employees
should not provide any medical information as part of
the proof.

39. ADA/Title VII
• Religious accommodation process:
• Employee indicates he or she is unable to receive a
COVID-19 vaccination because of a sincerely held
religious practice or belief.
• Interactive process
• Provide reasonable accommodation that does not pose
an undue hardship (more than a de minimis cost or
burden on the employer)

40. ADA/Title VII
• What qualifies as a “religious belief”?
• EEOC guidance explains that because the definition of religion is
broad and protects beliefs, practices, and observances with which
the employer may be unfamiliar, the employer should ordinarily
assume that an employee’s request for religious accommodation is
based on a sincerely held religious belief.
• If, however, an employee requests a religious accommodation, and
an employer has an objective basis for questioning either the
religious nature or the sincerity of a particular belief, practice, or
observance, the employer would be justified in requesting
additional supporting information.

41. ADA/Title VII
• What qualifies as a “religious belief”?
• Social, political, or economic philosophies, or personal preferences,
are not "religious" beliefs under Title VII.

42. ADA/Title VII
• What happens if an employer cannot exempt or
provide a reasonable accommodation to an
employee who cannot comply with a mandatory
vaccine policy because of a disability or sincerely
held religious practice or belief?
• If an employee cannot get vaccinated for COVID-19
because of a disability or sincerely held religious belief,
practice, or observance, and there is no reasonable
accommodation possible, then it would be lawful for the
employer to exclude the employee from the workplace.
• This does not mean the employer may automatically
terminate the worker. Employers should first consult
with legal counsel.

43. Alternatives to Mandatory Policies
• Simply encourage employees to get the vaccine.
• Provide incentives
• May need to offer an alternative program.

44. Best Practices
• Have a written policy in place.
• Mandatory
• Voluntary
• Incentive-based
• Identify how to request an accommodation.
• Maintain confidentiality of vaccine records.
• If unionized, consult the collective bargaining
agreement.