Most Employers Not Set to Reopen Amid Virus, Report Says
Nearly three-quarters of employers have yet to finalize their strategies for restarting operations as states slowly begin loosening restrictions intended to curb the spread of COVID-19, and more than half the businesses are still in the early phases of putting a plan together, according to a new survey by Blank Rome LLP.
In a survey asking its employer clients about various issues related to COVID-19, the firm found that 73% of respondents had yet to lock in a “return-to-work” plan and about 56% of businesses are still only in the “beginning stages” of putting a plan together, according to the report provided to Law360 on Thursday.
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“While businesses know they need to think about this, and employers of all sizes and all geographies get that this is going to be an issue, 70% of the people that responded were starting from scratch still at this point with no plans in place,” Brooke Iley, co-chair of Blank Rome’s labor and employment practice, told Law360. “I really thought that number would be a lot lower. So ... there’s a lot of work to be done in a very short time frame.”
Iley’s colleague Susan Bickley, a labor and employment lawyer and chair of Blank Rome’s office in Houston, noted that a complete back-to-work plan comprises many elements. They include an analysis of the physical workspace, new cleaning procedures, determining if workers will return in phases and whether shift schedules will be altered to better allow for social distancing, and establishing protocols for screening potentially sick workers.
To read the full Law360 article, which includes numerous insights from Susan and Brooke on the results of Blank Rome’s survey, please click here.
“Most Employers Not Set to Reopen Amid Virus, Report Says,” by Vin Gurrieri, was published in Law360 on May 1, 2020.
