This blog was authored by Lisa S. Charbonneau.

Flu season is upon us again. This year hospitals across California have reported unusually high numbers of patients with flu-like symptoms  and news outlets say this flu season is on track to being the worst in 10 years.   What, if anything, can employers do to manage and minimize the effects of flu season on employees?

Employees Should Take Advantage of Their Available Sick Leave

Many employees come to work sick or fall ill at work but do not leave. Employees who are sick in the work place may cause the sickness to spread to other employees, leading to productivity loss.  To best promote the use of sick leave when employees are sick, employers should clearly inform employees that they are expected to use their sick leave when necessary and if they experience symptoms at work, they should go home – and stay home until they have recovered.  Importantly, managers who come to work sick set a poor example for their supervisees.  Therefore, managers should be similarly advised not to come to work while sick or displaying flu-like symptoms.

Send Home Employees Who Show Visible Signs of a Contagious Illness at Work

An employer can require an employee to go home if he or she is showing signs of a contagious illness – even if the employee does not want to leave work. The best practice is to take this action when an employee shows extreme signs of illness, e.g. loud and repeated coughing, hacking, or sneezing.  When sending an employee home due to visible illness, employers must ensure they are acting in a non-discriminatory, non-retaliatory, and neutral manner.  Employers should consider establishing policies or procedures with language confirming the right to remove sick employees from the workplace.

Employees May Use Sick Leave to Care for Family Members with the Flu

California’s Paid Sick Leave Law provides that employees may use up to one half of their annual accrued sick leave to care for their family members. The definition of family members is quite broad; the term includes children, parents, spouses, domestic partners, grandparents, grandchildren, siblings, and parent-in-laws.  Employers cannot deny an employee the right to use protected paid sick leave and are prohibited from retaliating against employees for using such leave.

The Flu Could Trigger FMLA/CFRA Entitlements

If the flu constitutes a “serious health condition” under the FMLA/CFRA, an affected employee would be entitled to avail themselves of their FMLA/CFRA rights, including by taking protected leave for their own flu or to care for a family member with the flu (assuming all other legal requirements are met). The flu may be a “serious health condition” if the employee is unable to work or perform other regular daily activities for three consecutive calendar days and the employee requires treatment from a healthcare provider twice within thirty days and/or requires continuing treatment under the supervision of a health care provider.

Although employers cannot escape influenza season, employers do have tools to address the effects of contagious illnesses in the workplace. For more information on leave entitlements for California employees, including California’s new Protected Paid Sick Leave Law, please visit the LCW Liebert Library here: https://liebertlibrary.com/liebert-store/leaves-2/leave-rights-for-california-employees/.

And don’t forget to wash your hands!

 

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Photo of Lisa S. Charbonneau Lisa S. Charbonneau

Lisa represents public agencies throughout the state as a negotiator, litigator, and trusted advisor in all matters pertaining to labor and employment law.  She has extensive experience in Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and wage and hour compliance, labor relations, collective bargaining, MOU…

Lisa represents public agencies throughout the state as a negotiator, litigator, and trusted advisor in all matters pertaining to labor and employment law.  She has extensive experience in Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and wage and hour compliance, labor relations, collective bargaining, MOU audits, PERB practice, and public employee disciplinary matters.  She also represents independent schools and non-profits in wage and hour matters.

Lisa has served as lead negotiator for small and large public agencies in labor negotiations with public safety unions and numerous other employee associations and organizations, including Teamsters, SEIU, AFSCME, police/deputy sheriffs associations, and the International Association of Firefighters.  Lisa takes a hands-on approach to bargaining and strives to be highly responsive to the unique needs of each client and their governing body.

Lisa also has an extensive litigation background in federal and state court, and has achieved successful results for clients in matters ranging from wage and hour to First Amendment retaliation.  As one of the firm’s FLSA litigators, Lisa has represented numerous cities, counties, and special districts in FLSA collective actions throughout the state.  She has also represented clients in arbitrations and fact-finding hearings, as well as before the Public Employee Relations Board, the California Labor Commissioner, the U.S. Department of Labor, the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing, and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

A significant part of Lisa’s practice involves counseling clients on the meet and confer process and FLSA issues.  She also conducts FLSA audits for clients, which range in scope from reviewing employer compliance with discrete wage and hour laws to assisting with payroll system upgrades and modifications to achieve compliance with wage and hour laws.  Her practice also includes training on such subjects as ethics, discrimination and harassment, FLSA compliance, the collective bargaining process, and the Brown Act.

Lisa serves on the Executive Committee of the firm’s Wage and Hour Practice Group and has taught LCW’s FLSA Academy since its inception.

Lisa received her JD from U.C. Hastings College of the Law in 2006 and was admitted to the California State Bar in December of that year.  While at Hastings, Lisa served as an Equal Justice America fellow and received a grant to work on community economic development issues for the City of Detroit.  Lisa earned her Bachelor of Arts with Honors in Government from Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, and soon after that worked at a bi-weekly political magazine in Washington, D.C. until she began to pursue her law degree.