Employers face legal, practical challenges when employees return to workplace

As employers begin calling back employees after the COVID-19 slowdown, they're confronting a host of legal and practical challenges. Here are some tips to make a successful reentry.

Be mindful of permissible health questions, screening

To reduce COVID-19's spread in the workplace, employees who are (or may be) sick must stay at home. What are your options to make sure that happens? Keep in mind you're normally limited from making certain disability-related inquiries or requiring medical exams under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which applies to employers with 15 or more employees, and the North Dakota Human Rights Act (NDHRA), which covers all North Dakota employers with one or more employees.

To assist employers in navigating disability-related issues during the pandemic, however, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has issued detailed guidance on what questions you may (and may not) ask of employees and what other steps you can take to ensure workplace safety. The ADA permits employers to make disability-related inquiries and conduct medical exams if they're job-related and consistent with business necessity. You may exclude employees with medical conditions that pose a direct threat to the health or safety of others and cannot be reduced with a reasonable accommodation. As a result, you may: