- Bar & Restaurant Guidelines Updates
- Dental Office Safety During COVID-19
- Family Leave Expansion for NJ Employees
- N.J. Employer Vaccine Mandates
- Asking About Vaccination Status Does Not Violate HIPAA
- Are Mandatory Vaccines Coming to Your Workplace?
- Can I Be Fired For Getting the Vaccine?
- Teacher Safety During COVID-19
- Hotel Employee Safety During COVID-19
- Long-Term Care Facilities and COVID-19
COVID-19 FAQs
- If I Self Quarantine Without Symptoms, Am I Protected By the Family and Medical Leave Act (“FMLA”)?
No. FMLA coverage is generally available for “serious health conditions.” An employee who is asymptomatic and does not have a sick family member but is self-quarantining is not entitled to FMLA protection.
- What Other COVID-19 Benefits and Protections Are Available to Me Aside From the FFCRA?
In addition to coverage under the FFCRA, you may be eligible for benefits and protections as an employee under a number of state and federal laws, including the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). COVID-19 worker benefits programs that may be available to you include:
-Unemployment;
-Paid sick time (state);
– Paid sick time (federal);
-Paid child sick leave; and
-Federal stimulus checks. - Can I Be Retaliated Against for Taking Leave Pursuant To the FFCRA?
No, you cannot. The FFCRA creates a discrimination claim which makes it unlawful for any employer to discharge, discipline, or discriminate in any other manner against an employee who takes leave in accordance with the Act.
New Jersey legislation prohibits employers from terminating or demoting employees who take, or request, time off due to an infectious disease, such as the coronavirus, that could affect others at work based on a written recommendation of a doctor. New Jersey legislation also precludes an employer from refusing to reinstate the employee to the position held when the leave commenced with no reduction in seniority, status, employment benefits, pay or other terms and conditions of employment.
- If I Take Leave Pursuant To the FFCRA, Am I Still Eligible to Use My Preexisting Paid Leave Benefits?
Yes. The paid sick time offered under the FFCRA must be granted in addition to any preexisting paid leave benefits. Your employer cannot modify its existing paid leave policy to avoid this obligation. Your employer also cannot require that you first use other paid leave benefits.
- What Compensation Does the FFCRA Provide?
The FFCRA gives employees who test positive for coronavirus the following benefits:
- Two weeks of paid sick leave at 100% of the employee’s salary.
- Pay is capped at 80 hours for full-time employees and at up to $511 per day.
- Part-time employees must be granted the amount of hours equal to the number of hours that the employee works, on average, over a two-week period.
In instances where the employee does not have coronavirus but a family member does, the FFCRA allows for:
- Up to ten additional weeks of paid family and medical leave at 67% of the employee’s salary.
- Pay capped at $200 per day.
- What Is the New Jersey Mandatory Overtime Restrictions for Health Care Facilities (MORHCF)?
The MORHCF dictates that health care facilities may not terminate hourly workers who are involved in patient care and clinical services if they refuse to work overtime unless there is an unforeseeable emergent circumstance or a national, state or, municipal emergency.
It states that the emergent circumstance exception should be used as a last resort and not simply because of chronic short staffing. Therefore, employers must exhaust reasonable efforts to fill vacancies before resorting to requiring employees to work hours in excess of a predetermined and regularly scheduled 40-hour workweek.
Latest COVID-19 Updates
We Are Here To Help You!
In this time of crisis, McOmber McOmber & Luber is particularly concerned about protecting people’s employment rights and has prepared a brief list of important considerations as well as a set of FAQs to explain how federal and state laws can protect your job, your wages, and your livelihood.
Know Your Rights
While many employees who engaged in quarantine had no other reasonable choice, many employers have retaliated against them in violation of state and federal law, firing them for their failure to come to work. In weighing whether you can afford to stay home and self-quarantine, it is important to keep in mind that if you protest your employer making you go to work against lawful orders, you cannot be retaliated against.
In this time of crisis, McOmber McOmber & Luber is particularly concerned about protecting people’s employment rights and has prepared a brief list of important considerations as well as a set of FAQs to explain how federal and state laws can protect your job, your wages, and your livelihood.
Important Considerations
You have the right to isolate yourself if:
- You are high-risk and have been advised by a doctor to self-quarantine;
- You have contracted the virus or have symptoms of the virus;
- You are serving as a caretaker for another person who has symptoms, has been diagnosed, is at home due to an isolation order, or whose school or place of care has been closed.
Employees who chose to engage in self-isolation during the coronavirus pandemic as a way of protecting themselves or others may be protected from retaliatory acts from their employers. Under federal law, specifically the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA), an employee has a right to take leave related to COVID-19 if the employee is unable to work or work remotely (telework) because:
- The employee is subject to a federal, state, or local quarantine or isolation order;
- The employee has been advised by a healthcare provider to self-quarantine;
- The employee is experiencing any symptoms of COVID-19 and is seeking a test and diagnosis;
- The employee is caring for an individual who is subject to a state, local, or federal isolation order or who has been advised by a healthcare provider to self-quarantine;
- The employee is caring for a child whose school or place of child care has been closed; or
- The employee is suffering from “any other substantially-similar condition.”
In addition, recent New Jersey legislation prohibits employers from terminating or demoting employees who take, or request, time off due to an infectious disease, such as the coronavirus that could affect others at work based on a written recommendation of a doctor.
It also precludes an employer from refusing to reinstate the employee to the position held when the leave commenced with no reduction in seniority, status, employment benefits, pay or other terms and conditions of employment.