Bill would end COVID immunity for employers

Michigan lawmakers will be considering a bill that would expire the legal immunity given to employers who follow workplace safety regulations and whose employees contract COVID-19. 

H.B. 6173, to be introduced Tuesday, would end the immunity granted in 2020 legislation that stated “an employer is not liable… for an employee’s exposure to COVID-19 if the employer was operating in compliance with all federal, state, and local statutes, rules, and regulations, executive orders, and agency orders related to COVID-19 that had not been denied legal effect at the time of the exposure.”  

The 2020 law also stated that “(a)n isolated, de minimis deviation from strict compliance with such statutes, rules, regulations, executive orders, and agency orders unrelated to the employee’s exposure to COVID-19 does not deny an employer the immunity.”  

The latest bill would not apply to an exposure to COVID-19 that occurs after July 1, 2022.