Definition of non-essential employee

[elmxl88]

What is the name of your state?NJ
Sorry, don't know where to post this one.
I am a secretary at an assisted living facility in NJ.
In the event that the residents of NJ are ordered to stay home over the next couple of weeks due to COVID 19
the facility claims that I am an essential employee (secretary), must I go in, do I have the right to stay home.

 

[LdiJ]

What is the name of your state?NJ
Sorry, don't know where to post this one.
I am a secretary at an assisted living facility in NJ.
In the event that the residents of NJ are ordered to stay home over the next couple of weeks due to COVID 19
the facility claims that I am an essential employee (secretary), must I go in, do I have the right to stay home.

You always have the right to stay home. The question is whether you have the right to stay home AND keep your job if your employer deems you as essential.

 

[elmxl88]

The key is ... is it the employer's guideline that a secretary is mandatory or, can I / should I call up a governing / healthcare association in NJ and see if they have the answer. My husband's employer will most likely follow the state mandated isolation rule... which does him no go if I forced to go to work.

 

[quincy]

The key is ... is it the employer's guideline that a secretary is mandatory or, can I / should I call up a governing / healthcare association in NJ and see if they have the answer. My husband's employer will most likely follow the state mandated isolation rule... which does him no go if I forced to go to work.

Calling up the state agency that is mandating isolation for nonessential employees would be smart.

 

[stealth2]

NJ has established a coronavirus hotline. Info here:
https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/health/nj-health-department-launches-coronavirus-hotline/2269893/

 

[zddoodah]

do I have the right to stay home.

Of course you do. Are you supposing that someone is going to come to your home and drag you kicking and screaming to work?

If you are told to come to work and refuse, you will likely be fired.

 

[quincy]

Here is a link to a publication from OSHA on pandemics:

https://www.osha.gov/Publications/influenza_pandemic.html

For information specific to Covid-19, you can click on the links at the bottom of the publication.

One company (a phone and internet service provider) has required employees to come to work or take sick leave - and forced the resignation of one employee who, instead of taking his one week sick leave, wanted to work from home to protect himself from the virus.

 

[quincy]

It could wind up being New Jersey dictating who is and who is not essential.

 

[Taxing Matters]

the facility claims that I am an essential employee (secretary), must I go in, do I have the right to stay home.

The way this usually works is that the state of emergency declaration will specify that everyone must stay home, evacuate, or whatever the restriction is except for certain authorized persons. The emergency declaration does not mandate that those authorized persons must go out, only that they are allowed out without violating the state of emergency. So the first issue will be whether you would be among the persons authorized to go out, and that comes down to what the declaration says. If you are authorized to go out — e.g. are considered essential — then it's up to your employer whether you need to go in or not. If the employer wants you to go in and you refuse then you probably can be fired for that, notwithstanding the general state of emergency. So you'd be within your rights to stay at home, but at the possible risk of losing your job.

 

[quincy]

There really is no “the way this usually works” in this situation. The states are all over the place in how they are handling the rights of employees.

 

[stealth2]

I suspect that much will depend on what duties you actually perform.

 

[elmxl88]

I suspect that much will depend on what duties you actually perform.

I am a secretary... and during a crisis, they would survive without me. I could do some work from home if I prepared!

 

[quincy]

I am a secretary... and during a crisis, they would survive without me. I could do some work from home if I prepared!

You should call the New Jersey hotline provided earlier by stealth.

I know there has been discussion in some states about how employers should not retaliate against employees who want to work from home to prevent their exposure to the virus.

 

[Taxing Matters]

There really is no “the way this usually works” in this situation. The states are all over the place in how they are handling the rights of employees.

There is what usually happens in most states of emergency, which is what I addressed. Sure, states and localities may try different things in this situation, and I'm going to bet that at least a few them will exceed the actual power they have in their efforts. Ours is a system of government in which the government is constrained in what it can do, even in an emergency, by the rights we have and the laws that are in place. Government officials sometimes forget that in their ardor to carry out what they see as their mission.

 

[Taxing Matters]

I know there has been discussion in some states about how employers should not retaliate against employees who want to work from home to prevent their exposure to the virus.

All well and good, but unless that state has a law that prohibits an employer from terminating an employee in that circumstance all the state can do is suggest how employers ought to treat their employees.