The EEOC Has Updated Its Guidance on COVID-19 and the ADA

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Patricia Tsipras

March 19, 2020

Yesterday, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission updated its guidance for pandemic preparedness and the Americans with Disabilities Act.  The EEOC now addresses the following questions:

• How much information may an employer request from an employee who calls in sick, to protect the rest of its workforce during the COVID-19 pandemic?

• When may an ADA-covered employer take the body temperature of employees during the COVID-19 pandemic?
• Does the ADA allow employers to require employees to stay home if they have symptoms of the COVID-19?
• When employees return to work, does the ADA allow employers to require doctors’ notes certifying their fitness for duty?
• If an employer is hiring, may it screen applicants for symptoms of COVID-19?
• May an employer take an applicant’s temperature as part of a post-offer, pre-employment medical exam?
• May an employer delay the start date of an applicant who has COVID-19 or symptoms associated with it?
• May an employer withdraw a job offer when it needs the applicant to start immediately but the individual has COVID-19 or symptoms of it?