Bill would ban employers from retaliating against quarantined coronavirus patients

In an effort to slow the spread of COVID-19 across California, Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez proposed a bill Thursday that would ban employers from firing or retaliating against employees who take days off from work to follow quarantine orders by public health officials or medical personnel.

AB 3123 would also allow employees to use earned sick days for childcare if their child’s school is shuttered due to a public health crisis, or if they are quarantined but haven’t contracted a disease, said Gonzalez, who detailed the provisions in a Thursday interview shortly after the bill’s introduction.

The assemblywoman will seek an urgency clause for the bill that would allow it to go into effect immediately, if it is approved by the Legislature and Gov. Gavin Newsom. That clause would require the approval of the governor and two-thirds of the Assembly and Senate.

“I can’t imagine that we will have pushback ... on a common sense bill,” Gonzalez said.

“We want to make sure workers know that they’re not going to lose their job,” she added.

Travis Vance, a partner at the Charlotte, North Carolina office of Fisher Phillips who heads the firm’s nationwide COVID-19 taskforce, said he has received at least 75 emails this week from employers concerned about how to navigate the disease, otherwise known as Coronavirus. On Thursday, Newsom declared a state of emergency after a California man died after contracting the virus while on a cruise ship.

“What [Gonzalez] just proposed in that bill is what I’ve been counseling most of my clients to do anyway,” Vance said. “And that is if somebody is quarantined or out, ... it doesn’t look good to the public if you’re not paying that person.”

“It’s actually going to be saving grace from a public perception standpoint,” he added.

Elizabeth R. Riles, managing partner at Oakland firm Bohbot & Riles, PC, represents employees and said the provision in AB 3123 allowing people to take sick leave even if they haven’t technically contracted the virus is noteworthy.

“This bill makes that clear really early on so that people won’t feel compelled to try to go and work,” Riles said. “California has a good sick leave law that’s available to people, but this is one of those things that would probably end up falling through the cracks and would depend on whether or not your employer would allow you to use sick leave in that way.”

Riles said she hasn’t been approached by any employees who fear retaliation or being fired because they’re taking time off for quarantines.

Even before the bill was introduced, however, Vance said many employers were already taking steps to protect their employees. He has been advising clients to educate employees about sick days, vacation days, and work from home days, he said, as well as what they might want to provide employees in case they’ve exhausted these standard options.

There has also been a trend of employers no longer requiring their employees engage in international travel, Vance noted.

“I think in the next couple of weeks, most employers are going to take that position,” he said.