Monitoring employees' personal travel during pandemic: more HR headaches

Although the summer vacation season is coming to a close, the conundrum posed by employee personal travel during the pandemic is still near the top of the list of HR headaches. On the one hand, managers want employees to take a vacation. It's good for morale, and no employer wants overflowing vacation banks. On the other hand, never have you had more of an interest in (and worry over) where employees travel and what they do once they arrive there.

May you inquire?

When employees give notice of time off, do you have the right to ask where they'll be traveling? That is, can they be compelled to divulge personal travel plans? In normal times, most management-side lawyers would tell you to tread lightly. After all, aside from watercooler banter, what right is it of yours to be asking whether the employee's family will be sitting on the beach or climbing in the mountains?

In case you haven't noticed, however, the times are not normal. It's a provable fact that certain regions of the country have been "hotter" than others during the COVID-19 outbreak. The maps seem to change color from week to week. The hot spots have moved around.

Under the new paradigm, you have a right to know if your employees' vacation travel will take them to areas that increase their chances of becoming infected with the virus. Your focus isn't necessarily on the front end of the trip but rather on the back end. After all, you have a general duty to provide a safe workplace for employees. Consequently, you may police their return to work from hot-spot travel.

May you veto travel plans?