Yesterday's Advisor featured the EEOC's advice for avoiding ADA problems when preparing for swine flu. Today, we'll get the agency’s advice about work practices, and an introduction to a special program for smaller HR departments.

Here’s more from the EEOC’s Q&A:

During a pandemic, may we require our employees to adopt infection control practices?

EEOC: Yes. Requiring infection control practices, such as regular hand washing, coughing and sneezing etiquette, and tissue usage and disposal, does not implicate the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

May we require our employees to wear personal protective equipment (for example, face masks, gloves, or gowns) designed to reduce the transmission of a pandemic virus?

EEOC: Yes. An employer may require employees to wear personal protective equipment. However, where an employee with a disability needs a related reasonable accommodation under the ADA (for example, non-latex gloves, or gowns designed for individuals who use wheelchairs), the employer should provide these unless doing so would involve undue hardship.

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May we encourage or require our employees to telework (i.e., work from an alternative location such as home) as an infection control strategy?

EEOC: Yes. An employer may encourage or require employees to telework as an infection-control strategy, based on timely information from public health authorities about pandemic conditions. Telework also may be a reasonable accommodation.

Of course, says the EEOC, employers must not single out employees either to telework or to continue reporting to the workplace on a basis prohibited by any of the EEO laws.

Swine flu is just one of, what, a dozen challenges sitting on your desk today? How about those FMLA intermittent leave headaches, accommodation requests, attendance problems? Let's face it, in HR, if it's not one thing, it's another. And in a small department, it's just that much tougher.

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  • Overview of compliance responsibilities, through a really useful  2-page chart of 21 separate laws with which HR needs to comply. These range from the well-known Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) to lesser known, but equally critical, rules such as Executive Order 11246. Also included are federal and state posting requirements. (Proper postings are among the first things a visiting inspector looks for ... especially now that the minimum wage has been changing repeatedly.)
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