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EEOC allows employers to quiz workers over sickness symptoms

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EEOC

Employers can ask workers who report feeling ill or call in sick questions about their symptoms to determine if they have COVID-19, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said in updated guidance.

The guidance issued Tuesday by the agency updates previously issued technical assistance.

The guidance also lets employers measure employees’ body temperature, although “as with all medical information the fact that an employee had a fever or other symptoms would be subject to (Americans with Disabilities Act) confidentiality requirements.”

Other advice in the guidance includes:

  • The ADA does not interfere with employers following Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or public health authorities’ recommendations and employers should feel free to do so.

  • An employer can send home an employee with COVID-19 or symptoms of the disease.

  • Employers may follow the CDC’s and state and local public health authorities’ advice regarding the information needed to permit an employee’s return to the workplace after visiting a specified location, whether for business or personal reasons.

  • Because the pandemic’s “extraordinary” circumstances may delay discussing requests and providing accommodation for employees with known disabilities that are unrelated to the pandemic, employers and employees “are encouraged to use interim solutions to enable employees to keep working as much as possible.”

  • Employers can screen applicants for symptoms of COVID-19 after making a conditional job offer, “as long as it does so for all entering employees in the same type of job.”

  • Employers can conduct medical exams after an employer has made a conditional employment offer, although they should be aware that some people with COVID-19 do not have a fever.

  • An employer can delay the start date of an applicant who has COVID-19 or its associated symptoms.

  • Employers can withdraw a job offer when it needs the applicant to start immediately, but the individual has COVID-19 or its symptoms.