California Employee Covid-19 Rights

It can feel like a powerless time for employees in the midst of an ongoing pandemic, however, California officials have worked to ensure that employees have rights to protect them against the virus, ensure that they have paid time off to recover, and to protect them against unsafe working conditions. Although these rights exist, we cannot always count on employers to support their employees in enforcing and protecting them. Rather, it is important to know your own rights to make sure that they are respected, and to know what legal actions are available to you in the event that they are not.

Rights California Employees Have Related to Covid-19

• Paid time off. If you work full-time for a California employer who has at least 26 employees, you qualify for up to 80 hours paid-time off for issues relating to Covid-19, including getting vaccinations, quarantining, caring for a loved one who is sick or quarantining, and caring for yourself or a family member who has tested positive for Covid-19. If you are a part-time employee, you are entitled to an amount of time equal to what you would work in a two-week period. 
• Additional time off to care for a seriously ill family member or to cope with long-Covid. If you have used up your 80 hours of paid leave, as well as any accumulated leave that you have with your employer, you have the ability to file a request for FMLA, or the Family Medical Leave Act. This provides six weeks of unpaid leave to cope with an illness, such as Covid-19, and extends to family members, as well. 
• Safe working conditions. Employees have a right to safe working conditions. If you believe that your working conditions are unsafe and are putting you at immediate risk of contracting Covid-19, you may be able to avoid going if there is not sufficient time to report the issues to the appropriate agency so that they can respond. However, this can get tricky, so it is best to consult with a lawyer. 
• Workers’ Compensation for Covid-19 in some professions. If you are a first responder, healthcare employee, or frontline worker, and you contract Covid-19, it will be presumed that you contracted the virus due to workplace exposure. This means that you qualify for workers’ compensation benefits which provide healthcare and full- or partial-wage replacement while you recover. If you do not work in one of these professions but have strong reason to believe that you contracted Covid-19 at work, you can still file a workers’ compensation claim for coverage. 
• Can’t be fired for being ordered to isolate. CalOSHA’s Emergency Temporary Standards require that if you are not permitted to come into work due to testing positive for Covid-19 or complying with an order to isolate, that no detrimental employment action be taken against you, and that your position remains the same. 

Contact a California Employment Lawyer Today 

If you have contracted Covid-19 and your employer is failing to give you the compensation and support that you are entitled to, a California employment attorney can help. Contact us today and find out how we can help you get back on your feet. You have already fought the battle against Covid. You should not have to fight your employer too.