Last week one employee at the BB&B store I work at, came in and told us and the manager he was at his friends house over the weekend and just found out his friends kid tested positive for Covid. Manager asked how long were you there he answered 4 to 5 hours, no mask and we were indoors. His friends tested negative and so did the BB&B employee. The manager said you need to quarantine for 14 days we're not paying you and told him to use his vacation time if he has any. When the employee said I want to work and I tested negative for Covid ? Manager said to bad, since you told me about it, you were exposed to it during your off hours not at work and there is a chance you're carrying it. You have to quarantine unpaid for 14 days?! Use your vacation time? Has this happened to anyone else in the company? I called HR about this question and they are vague about it.
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Absolutely correct. All employers have Covid protocol and hot lines for this reason. They were put in place to protect the privacy of the employee and to protect the health of employees and customers he/she may come into contact.
Covid rates are rising every day. This is serious . I think the employee even coming in to say that is not cool. And the questions from the Mgr are not warranted. So many people are doing whatever they want and are not concerned about others. I feel there is something a bit fishy about this post. Why did the poster call HR? Did the exposed employee? If anyone thinks they were exposed get tested..and ask at the testing site if you need to quarantine and get retested. There are also Covid hotlines. Be responsible
Of course HR was vague. We are in uncharted territories. However, I would think the employee was not obligated to give such details. The exposure and quarantine details should have been worked out between the employee, HR, and the employee’s medical advisor. CDC requires a 10-14 day quarantine upon a positive test result. The employee tested negative, and probably wouldn’t have been tested for several days since exposure anyway.
At my store, we recently had an employee who took a few days off and went to a hot spot state. When the employee returned, the SM called HR and was advised the employee would need to quarantine for 2 weeks following our state's directive. SM asked if employee could wait one week and then get tested. If the test came back negative, could the employee then return to work. The answer was no as according to our state guidelines, the employee needed to quarantine for 14 days as the virus can take anywhere from 2 to 14 days to appear. As the employee had left the state and was a part-time employee, the time off was unpaid. The employee understood the decision.
Now the issue is what happens if employees leave our state for Thanksgiving or Christmas as most states around us are on the "banned" list. Some have already said that their families have made the decision not to get together for the holidays this year in order to avoid any possible spread of the virus and to spare any vulnerable family members. This is a difficult decision but if you know anyone or any family who has lost a loved one to COVID, you begin to realize this is the right decision for this year.
As far as making up Covid rules..yes they are as Covid is new. The employee should have gotten info from the test site if they need to be retested and if they need to Quarantine. Simple as that. There is a labor board in every state so reach out to them. EEOC would not be pertinent for this. They are for discrimination cases.
BB&B is taking advantage of their instore employees. Closing stores without notice, firing full time employees with medical benefits who've been there 5-10 years and replacing them with part time workers with no medical benefits and making up Covid rules case by case as they go along.
You want to stop this? Store employees need to unionize. A union would be able to answer your questions. Also they'd be able to stand up for employees, fight for you if they are closing stores, as well as force the company to show us their Covid rules... We are all sitting ducks. I'm meeting with store employees in my area in NY and NJ to try to unionize. Look for my how to join my union posts here soon. But feel free to look online how to unionize.
If you are in California call the Labor Board and EEOC.