Pay to Slay: Targeting Bedbugs at Employees’ Homes

Fourth of four parts
If employees have a bedbug problem at home, it could soon become their employers’ problem at work, too. One way to attack the problem is to go to its root — and help with cleaning up the home infestation. Some employers have gone so far as to pay for the cost of sending a pest control company to their employee’s home. Be careful, though, because it can be a slippery slope.

“Paying for one [employee home cleanup] may obligate you to pay for them all, and if you don’t, you may have to defend that decision,” warns Susan Gross Sholinsky, an attorney with Epstein Becker & Green, P.C., in New York City. “If you do pay, you may wish to get a release from the employee absolving you from liability.”

Whether to pay for pest control services isn’t the only policy issue that bedbugs trigger, according to Sholinsky, who recently copresented an audio event on the subject for HRHero.com. Here are some others:

• what your company’s approach will be for preventing bedbug (or other such) infestations;
• whether employees have a duty to report workplace bedbug sightings to management;
• whether they must tell you if they have a bedbug problem at home;
• whether they are expected to report to the office during an outbreak, will be allowed to work from home, or will be permitted to take time off; and
• which types of leave might be available for employees if either the workplace or an employee’s home is infested.

Should employees on so-called “bedbug leave” be paid? “It depends on the reason for the leave and who requested it — the company or the employee,” Sholinsky says. “If it’s paid, is it part of their sick, personal, vacation, or PTO pay, or will it require a special additional allocation?” All are good questions that could leave employers scratching their heads (and other body parts) searching for answers.

“Bedbugs at Work? Guard Against Lawsuits, Productivity Threats,” a 90-minute audio event featuring University of Kentucky entomology professor Michael F. Potter and Epstein Becker Green attorney Susan Gross Sholinsky, is available on CD or via live streaming.