To Restart Business, Protect Workers
Companies that make a good-faith effort to keep employees safe during the pandemic shouldn’t have to worry about getting sued.
Ready, willing, able to work.
Photographer: Joe Raedle/Getty Images
States that are reopening their economies even as cases of Covid-19 are still rising are threatening their own residents and the whole country. But they are also running into two challenges that all states will face: Employees don’t want to return to work if they fear exposure to coronavirus on the job, and employers don’t want to get sued if their workers or customers end up sick. Both concerns are reasonable, and both could further cripple the economy unless Congress steps in.
It’s essential that companies take actions that protect their employees, yet they are getting little federal guidance in what exactly that means. Even those that take every conceivable precaution, however, will face unprecedented liability concerns that could paralyze investment and prevent them from rehiring workers they may have laid off or furloughed.