COVID-19's impact on summer trips: what you should know about vacation requests

With summer in sight, Michigan employers can expect to receive an uptick in vacation requests. When employees try to return from their travels, however, a patchwork of coronavirus-related administrative guidance and executive and county orders may pose unforeseen consequences.

Daily screening processes

When employees arrive back at the workplace, Executive Order 2020-97 (EO 97) requires Michigan employers to use "at a minimum, a questionnaire covering symptoms and suspected or confirmed exposure to people with possible COVID-19." While EO 97 doesn't explain what "suspected or confirmed exposure" means, several local counties implemented their own orders delineating the required travel-related inquiry with more specificity.

Guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends individuals stay home for 14 days upon travel to and from a country with "widespread ongoing transmission" (i.e., all countries as of March 27, 2020). Therefore, you should continue to ask if employees have traveled internationally in the preceding 14 days. Whether you also must ask about domestic travel (i.e., travel outside Michigan) depends on the county in which you operate.

Bay County. Employees who have traveled internationally or domestically by any mode of transportation must be excluded from the worksite for 14 days unless the travel was the result of commuting to their work from a home location outside of the state. Bay County's EO 2020-2 has no expiration date.