Today, however, we are doing Part III of our COVID-19 Q&A, so we're gonna be talking about Coronavirus. Today's Part III is all about, basically, employee's right of refusal to come to work, what sort of things you have to deal with in terms of unreasonable expectations of security equipment. How does that work? We're going to be going in there now. 

Part I. We talked about telecommuting guidance.

Part II. We went into what actually needs to happen if someone is sick or suspected of having the virus.

Tomorrow or on our next episode, we will be talking about the, "How group health insurance coverage section Coronavirus? What sort of ways can you take advantage of that?"

Part V. We're going to talk about the employees who are calling in sick. So we're about Wage and Hour related issues related to Coronavirus. Do we have issues with how are we going to pay these people when they're working from home? Those sorts of issues.

Finally.

Part VI. We're gonna talk about employer liability. Probably the least important part of this but we do need to cover it. Are you on the hook if your employees get sick at work from coronavirus? 

So, let's dive into Part III here. 

Can an employee refuse to come to work because of a fear of infection? 

This question and others like it we get through our social media and from our clients directly who are needing help. If you want to submit a question of your own, please check us out on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter @peopleprocesses. We'd love to hear from you there. We really appreciate subscribers there. It makes us feel like someone's out there listening. And we're just not talking to the ether. So take a look. Let us know if there's anything we can help you with, ask any questions. 

If an employee refuses to come to work because of their fear of infection, the question is like, “Is that like a disciplinary issue?” Right, I need you at work. Well, employees are only entitled to refuse to work if they believe they are in imminent danger. This is Section 13(a) of OSHA. This is the Occupational Safety and Health Act, not the OSHA administration. It defines "imminent danger" to include, "any condition or practices in any place of employment which are such that a danger exists which can reasonably be expected to cause death or serious physical harm immediately or before the imminence of such danger can be eliminated through the enforcement procedures otherwise provided by this act." OSHA discusses imminent danger as where there is "threat of death or serious physical harm," or "a reasonable expectation that toxic substances or other health hazards are present. Exposure to them will shorten life or cause substantial reduction in physical or mental efficiency." 

So, the threat must be immediate or imminent, which means that an employee must believe that death or serious physical harm could occur within a short time, for example, before OSHA could investigate the problem. Requiring travel to China or to work with patients in a medical setting without personal protective equipment at this time may rise to that threshold. Most work conditions in the United States, however, do not meet the elements required for an employee to refuse to work now. Once again, I guess I should say this is being recorded on March 14 2020. If you're listening to this in April, things are going very badly, may be different. But right now, the conditions aren't there. This guidance is general and employers are going to need to determine when this unusual state exists in your workplace before we're determining whether it is permissible for employees to refuse to work. 

In addition, Section 7 of the NLRA. The National Labor Relations Act extends broad-based statutory protections to those employees (in union and non-union settings) to engage in "protected concerted activity from you to mutual aid or protection." So, just keep in mind, such activity has