Coronavirus (COVID-19) Resources for Employees

The federal Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) was enacted on March 18, 2020. It includes two different employee leave acts  for employees that are unable to work or telework: Emergency Paid Sick Leave Act (EPSLA), which provides up to 80 hours of paid leave to qualifying employees who need leave for their own COVID-19 health related issues, to care for an individual with COVID-19 issues, or to care for a minor child due to a COVID-19 related school or child care closure and the Emergency Family and Medical Leave Expansion Act (EFMLEA), which provides qualifying employees up to twelve weeks of paid and unpaid leave to care for a minor child due to a COVID-19 related school or child care closure.

These acts are effective on April 1, 2020 and expire on December 31, 2020. This poster explains what employees’ rights are under the EFMLEA and EPSLA.

Noting that this is a new benefit, you can find additional information online at the U.S. Department of Labor website.

Where leave is foreseeable, you should provide notice of leave to your supervisor/HR as soon as is practicable. After the first workday of paid sick time, LCC may require employees to follow reasonable notice procedures in order to continue receiving paid sick time.

Employees who are interested in accessing these new types of leave should complete and submit the FFCRA request form to hr@lowercolumbia.edu with any required documentation included. Upon receipt of all forms, HR will be in contact to confirm eligibility and coordinate approved periods of leave.

If you have a medical condition impacting your ability to report to work, you may request an accommodation. Governor Jay Inslee issued Proclamation 20-46, which prevents all employers, public or private, from failing to provide accommodation to high risk employees, as defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), that protects them from risk of exposure to the COVID-19 disease on the job.

Scope of the Proclamation Effective July 29, 2020, only those employees who fall within the following categories are covered by Proclamation 20-46.2 and any future versions of the order.

a) Employees who are 65 years or older;

b) Employees whose conditions are listed by the CDC under the “at increased risk”category; and

c) Employees whose conditions are listed by the CDC under the “might be at increased risk” category, but only if, based on the employee’s medical circumstances and workplace conditions, the employee is, in fact, at increased risk for suffering severe illness from COVID-19.** Medical Verification may be required 

Specifically:

1. The employer must offer these employees alternative work assignments, including telework, alternative, or remote work locations, if feasible, and social distancing measures:
2. If an alternative work assignment is not feasible, or the employee declines, the employer must allow the employee to use any accrued leave or seek unemployment benefits;
3. The employer must maintain the employee’s health insurance benefits;
4. The employer is prohibited from permanently replacing high-risk employees.

This proclamation remains in effect until further notice.
 
If you are in one of the high-risk categories outlined above and would like to request an accommodation under the Proclamation, please fill out this High Risk Employee Accommodation Request Form and send to Human Resources at hr@lowercolumbia.edu.

If you don't have a medical condition, but are concerned about workplace exposure to the Coronavirus, you have several options depending on your position:

• Use leave if you qualify
• Request to telework
• Request to temporarily adjust your schedule

If you have symptoms of fever and cough or shortness of breath, and not had any known exposure to COVID-19 or tested positive for COVID-19, you need to stay home for twenty-four (24) hours after fever is gone and symptoms have improved.

Some employees may be required by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines to self-quarantine due to possible exposure of COVID-19. Please refer to the below scenarios to have a better understanding of when self-quarantine needs to occur in addition to healthcare provider recommendations.

Who has to quarantine themselves at home?

1. Persons with a cough and a fever.
   • If you have had a test and been diagnosed with COVID-19, you need to stay home, away from people when you have been fever-free for at least 24 hours, your symptoms have improved, and at least ten days have passed since symptoms first appeared.
   • If you have NOT had a COVID-19 test, but you have had close contact with someone who has had a test and been diagnosed with COVID-19, you should isolate yourself at home for ten days OR until 24 hours after your fever is gone and your symptoms get better, whichever is longer.
   • If you have NOT been around anyone who has been diagnosed with COVID-19, you should stay home away from others until 24 hours after the fever is gone and symptoms get better. You may have any number of other respiratory diseases circulating in our communities.
2. Persons who feel fine, displaying no symptoms of illness.
   • BUT your child or someone else in your household has a cough and a fever, but has NOT been tested for COVID-19. The sick person needs to stay home until their fever and symptoms have been gone for 24 hours. You and the rest of the household can continue to go to work and school as long as you feel well. Several potential respiratory diseases exist that can cause cough and a fever.
     BUT a friend of a friend of yours has COVID-19. You can continue to go to work and school as long as you feel well. If you have not been around someone with COVID-19, the chances that you contract COVID-19 are fairly low.
   • BUT you are worried about your older or medically-fragile friends and relatives. This is a time to practice social distancing. Refrain from shaking hands, high fives, and hugs. Stand six feet or more from other people. Wash your hands frequently.
3. You feel fine, displaying no symptoms of illness.
   • BUT you have had close contact with a sick person who has been diagnosed with COVID-19.
     • You should not go to work or school, and should avoid public places for 14 days.
     • Call your healthcare provider and monitor your health for fever, cough and shortness of breath during the 14 days after the last day you were in close contact with the sick person with COVID-19.
   • BUT you tested positive for COVID-19.
     • You should not go to work, school, or public places until ten days have passed since you tested positive AND you haven’t developed subsequent illness.

Click here for more guidance regarding what to do if you were potentially exposed to someone with confirmed COVID-19.

If an employee feels fine, not displaying symptoms, but has had close contact with a sick person who has been diagnosed with COVID-19, the employee should notify their supervisor immediately.

Supervisors will work with employees to verify if their work can be done remotely. If the employee is provided the opportunity to telework and declines to do so, the employee must use their own accrued leave.

Request to telework by completing the applicable telework form and submitting to HR. Review the Telework Procedure for more details.

• Employee Telework Agreement Form
• Faculty Telework Agreement Form

Telework resources for employees:

• 9 Tips to Be Productive While Working at Home During COVID-19
• Make Working From Home Work for You
• How to Work From Home Without Losing Your Mind

In those instances where a telework arrangement is not feasible, employees who are self-quarantined will be released from work with no loss in pay during the time of self-quarantine for up to no more than 14 calendar days. If the employee starts to display symptoms while at home, the employee will no longer qualify for paid administrative leave and will need to use one of the leave types  as outlined in this leave chart if you qualify. It is vital to stress the importance of the responsibility for employees to consider the health of the workplace and their coworkers by exercising sound judgment and transparency during times of illness.

Employees will be required to submit a request for the self-quarantine leave by providing a self-written statement confirming the circumstance warranting the self-quarantine and should submit the request to HR. An email is considered written documentation. A note from a medical provider is not required. LCC retains the right to request written verification confirming the circumstances warranting the self-quarantine, which may include a signed affidavit from an employee.

If an employee contracts or tests positive for COVID-19, they are required to use one of the leave types on this leave chart if they qualify. For a list of leave options click here.

Due to school or childcare provider closures, you may:

• Request to telework (Note: telework may be approved even if you are the primary provider for child(ren) during telework hours).
• Use one of the Federal Leave options if you qualify, use sick leave, compensatory time, vacation leave, and/or leave without pay. You can also view leave options on this leave chart.
  
  

Use one of the Federal Leave options if you qualify. You can view all of your leave options on this chart.

Employees may be eligible to apply for Shared Leave, Unemployment Insurance benefits, Industrial Insurance (L&I) benefits or Paid Family Medical Leave (PFML). The Employment Security Department has published COVID-19 Scenarios & Benefits Available, a useful tool to help understand when unemployment, L&I or PFML may be applicable.

Please continue to protect yourself and families, neighbors and colleagues by staying home when sick, covering coughs and sneezes with a tissue, and washing hands frequently with soap and water for at least 20 seconds. Whenever possible avoid close contact with people who are sick, and frequently clean touched surfaces and objects.

Remember to treat individuals and communities impacted by COVID-19 with compassion and support – viruses do not discriminate and neither should we. Please speak up if you hear, see or read stigmatizing comments or misinformation.

If you think you have been exposed to someone with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19, follow the steps provided by the CDC to monitor your health and to avoid spreading the disease to others if you get sick.

In order to protect against the spread of Coronavirus, LCC is requiring everyone on campus to wear a cloth face covering starting April 15, 2020. Employees may provide their own face covering, or they can request one at the security office (employee id required). Please read through this list of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) for more detailed information.

Either before, or immediately upon your arrival to campus, please contact your LCC Security Team at (360) 431-8839, or email Jason Arrowsmith at jarrowsmith@lcc.ctc.edu or Rheba Rukkila at rrukkila@lcc.ctc.edu, and let them know of your arrival and what buildings or facilities you will be accessing. It is also appreciated if you contact the Security Team upon your departure as well.

This is a safety measure put in place until May 5, 2020.* Security will know to include your area more frequently during their patrols, maintenance staff will know to clean your office area, and, in case there is an emergency, the Security Team will know that you are on campus and will know where to contact you.

*Date subject to change.