An Order of the Governor of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania for Mitigation, Enforcement, and Immunity Protections goes into effect on Friday, November 27, 2020.
Most of the Order is a consolidation and heightening of prior orders, including those regarding cleaning, social distancing, masking, and other workplace protocols.
The Order does allow for continued in-person business operations. However, even for those businesses that continue to operate in-person, teleworking is now required, unless “impossible.” This means that all individual employees who can work remotely must do so, even if the remainder of the business may continue in-person operations.
Additionally, temperature checks for all employees who work in-person are now a general mitigation requirement, not just in the instance of a workplace exposure. Self-certification by employees previously satisfied the temperature check requirement. If employers check temperatures upon employee’s arrival at work, they must do so in a safe and socially-distanced manner. Any employee with a temperature of 100.4 or above must not be permitted to attend work in-person.
The Order also contains several industry-specific requirements, such as cleaning protocols and occupancy requirements. To encourage masking, limited immunity protection is provided for businesses who enforce masking.
To be clear, businesses of all industries are, at this time, permitted to continue in-person operations so long as they follow this new Order (including telework and temperature check requirements), prior orders, and Pennsylvania Department of Health and CDC guidance.
If you have any questions regarding COVID-19 mitigation requirements for Pennsylvania businesses, or any other employment-related legal issue, please contact Leah K. Sell.
Leah Sell is an Associate with Leech Tishman, and a member of the firm’s Employment & Labor, Corporate, Cannabis and LaunchPad Practice Groups. She is based in the firm’s Pittsburgh office and can be reached at 412.261.1600 or lsell@leechtishman.com.
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