Businesses brace for H1N1 | Rue the flu: What businesses can do
An entire department at Diversified Communications recently failed to show up to work at their Portland office. Then, a few workers in the finance department stayed home, too. Luckily, all the empty chairs were part of the media company’s plan to prepare for a possible outbreak of this season’s most feared and talked about ailment: the H1N1 flu.
Diversified’s work-from-home practice run allowed employees to move cash and make payments from remote computers, and gave the company a chance to spot possible disruptions, according to CFO Paul Clancy. Executives had talked for the last couple of years about work-from-home preparation, but the threat of H1N1 put a fire under the discussion, Clancy says. “H1N1 was like, ‘OK, here’s a real thing,’” he says. “You can sit around and think about a bomb going off in the middle of Portland and things like that, but H1N1 is a reality.”
Diversified also revised its sick leave policy to encourage affected workers to stay home and urged managers to be more flexible with workers who are sick or caring for an ill family member, Clancy says. Other steps included giving every employee a bottle of hand sanitizer, directing the cleaning crew to beef up sanitizing common areas and posting informational posters.
As H1N1’s effects clearly manifest in Maine schools, the private sector is facing contingency plans, worker education efforts and even legal quandaries. The Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention doesn’t track H1N1 absenteeism at businesses like it does for schools, but anecdotally the impact so far appears limited. The apprehensions in the business community, however, are not.
Before a question about H1N1’s impacts at L.L.Bean could be fully uttered, spokeswoman Carolyn Beem let out a superstitious “Shhh!” The Freeport retailer is on the tail end of hiring 4,600 seasonal workers in preparation for its busiest time of the year. So far, though, it hasn’t been hard hit by H1N1, she says.
The company recently rolled out a pandemic policy specifying that workers, including seasonal employees, won’t be penalized for staying home to care for sick children, Beem says. It’s also cross-training employees to perform other job functions and trying to help workers separate the hysteria from the facts by providing accessible and reasonable information about H1N1, she says.
L.L.Bean also plans to offer the vaccine to workers, whenever the doses become available. The statewide shortage is throwing off the vaccine distribution process already in place for the regular seasonal flu. Typically, the CDC would turn to large employers like Bean, after supplying hospitals and clinics, to help reach at-risk populations, but the dearth of vaccines has truncated the distribution line.
“There’s not enough vaccine for even the highest of the risk groups, so thinking about a mass vaccine through a large business is disingenuous,” at this point, says Steven Diaz, a physician and vice president of medical administration for MaineGeneral in Waterville.
It’s still early for businesses to be hard hit by H1N1, as the outbreak hasn’t yet peaked, he says. The state is expected to be well supplied with vaccines by mid-December. Simple suggestions to workers like sneezing into a tissue or sleeve and frequent hand washing are important, Diaz says, but don’t count on workers’ hygiene to keep your business safe. “Human vigilance is probably the weakest part of a good plan,” he says.
Employers should also consider screening employees for symptoms as they enter the workplace, depending on the severity of the H1N1 outbreak, he says. But be careful about pulling out that thermometer: You could land your business in court. Unless part of a pre-employment physical, taking an employee’s temperature could be considered an unlawful medical examination, says Meg LePage, a partner in Portland law firm Piece Atwood’s employment group. In light of H1N1, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has said temperature taking is acceptable only if not doing so would pose a direct threat to the health of the affected employee and others, she says. It is lawful to ask employees if they feel feverish, have a sore throat or are experiencing other symptoms.
While the CDC recommends taking steps to protect employees at higher risk, employers can’t ask workers if they’re pregnant or have HIV or other conditions that compromise the immune system, LePage says. A worker survey on EEOC’s website can help businesses assess their at-risk population, she says.
Diaz urges another deceptively simple step for employers: Display posters about hand washing and flu symptoms. “People need a lot of reminders,” he says.
Taking time
Maine Senate President Elizabeth Mitchell plans to introduce a bill in the 2010 session, which begins in January, that she says would curtail the spread of H1N1 by giving employees more paid time off. The Vassalboro Democrat wants to give employees of businesses with 25 or more workers to up to six paid sick days a year, and employees at smaller businesses up to three paid sick days. Employees would have to accrue minimum work time to be eligible.
Although a final bill has yet to be drafted, Peter Gore, a lobbyist for the Maine State Chamber of Commerce, say the legislation will go far beyond H1N1 to include other health conditions, and the burden of compliance would hit businesses at just the wrong time. “It’s very likely that we will be opposing that legislation,” he says.
H1N1 on the web
General information about H1N1 in Maine: www.maineflu.gov
Printable posters and information specific to employers: www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/business
Learn about how the state is working with insurers in response to H1N1: www.maine.gov/pfr/insurance/h1n1.htm
Information about pandemic preparedness, Americans with Disabilities Act compliance and an employee survey: www.eeoc.gov/facts/pandemic_flu.html
Most Recent
Most Recent
Comments