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UPDATE:  The COVID-19 Vaccination and Your Workplace.  Know Your Rights!

This article is an update of our January 27, 2021 blog post

As more and more employers implement mandatory vaccination policies for employees, it’s important for employees to understand why the requirement is legal, and what their options are.

Legal challenges to vaccine mandates have not, so far, been successful.  Applications for injunctive relief have been denied, and a federal court in Texas has rejected wrongful termination and public policy arguments.  New York City Municipal Labor Committee, et al. v. City of New York, et. al, Index No. 158368/2021 (New York Co. September 22, 2021); Bridges, et al v. Houston Methodist Hospital, et al., H-21-1774 (SD Tex. June 12, 2021).

This said, employees who are afflicted with disabilities that make it dangerous for them to be vaccinated, as well as employees with sincerely-held religious beliefs, may be able to seek a reasonable accommodation. Each employer has its own process for requesting those accommodations, and determining whether there is a reasonable accommodation available involves an interactive process that requires the cooperation of both employer and employee. Below, we recap several FAQs from our previous vaccination article.

Can my employer demand that I receive the COVID-19 vaccine as a condition of employment?

Yes. Requiring the vaccine is not a medical exam, nor does it seek information about your current health status or impairments. A vaccine mandate does not in itself violate discrimination laws if the mandate allows a case-by-case assessment of whether there a reasonable accommodation could be provided for those who need it.

What if I do not want to be vaccinated because of my disability or because of my sincerely-held religious beliefs?

If your disability or religious beliefs prevent you from being vaccinated, you may request an accommodation from your employer.  When you request an accommodation, your employer needs to determine if you, as an unvaccinated employee, pose a “direct threat” to the health and safety of yourself or others, and whether the threat can be eliminated or reduced by a reasonable accommodation.

If the  assessment results in a finding of direct threat, your employer will try to determine if there is a reasonable accommodation that would allow you to continue to work. This interactive process includes getting information from you and your doctor or religious leader. It is important for employees to cooperate in the interactive process; failure to do so can result in termination. Keep in mind that your employer does not have to provide the specific accommodation that you request. Also, if your employer genuinely cannot come up with a reasonable accommodation, you may be terminated.

Can my employer ask for proof that I have received the COVID-19 vaccine?

Yes. Simply requesting proof of a COVID-19 vaccine is not likely to elicit information about a disability and, as such, is not a disability-related inquiry that would trigger ADA or other health information privacy protections. However, if you have not been vaccinated due to a medical condition, you’ll need to be prepared to request an accommodation, which will require you to provide  medical information to allow the employer to determine what kind of accommodation can be provided.

Do I have ADA protection if my employer administers the COVID-19 vaccine ? 

Yes. The pre-vaccination medical screening questions are likely to elicit information about your health. When these questions are asked by your employer (this might happen in the healthcare context), they meet the ADA definition of a “disability-related” inquiry, and, as a result, you are entitled to ADA protection. The ADA requires that the disability-related screening questions be “job related and consistent with business necessity.” If you are concerned that your employer’s mandatory vaccination program does not meet this threshold, contact an attorney for advice.

Returning To Work During COVID-19

Please note that the information contained in this post is for informational purposes and is not to be considered legal advice. This blog post does not create or imply an attorney-client relationship.  If you would like to discuss your particular circumstances with us, please set up a consultation by contacting the Satter Ruhlen Law Firm at 315-471-0405 or through our website (https://www.satterlaw.com/contact-us/).  We look forward to walking you through your workplace rights.

It’s scary, or a relief, or a mixture of the two.  The workplace now has cleaning requirements, PPE requirements, screening requirements, and social distancing requirements.  You may have to take a test before you go in.  You may be on staggered shifts with your co-workers, working at the office on some days and at home on other days. There are rules about who can be in different parts of the workplace and under what circumstances.  There may be one-way hallways and closed breakrooms. The rules are changing every day, and it’s hard to know what you’re supposed to do and when.  Here are some frequently asked questions facing employees these days:

  • Can my employer require me to take a COVID-19 test before allowing me to return to work?
    • It depends on the type of test. 
      • Antibody tests: On June 18, 2020 the EEOC updated its guidance in response to new CDC guidance stating that antibody testing should not be used to make decisions about whether an employee should return to work. If an employer is insisting that you take an antibody test in order to determine whether you should be allowed to return to work, call an attorney.
      • Viral tests:  However, a viral test is still an acceptable return to work requirement, as it is job-related and consistent with business necessity.
      • Temperature checks:  An employer can require employees to have their temperature taken prior to entering a workplace.  However, if your employer insists on a particularly invasive temperature-taking method, call an attorney immediately. 
      • Written tests:  Many New York employers are required to have their employees certify that they are symptom free, COVID-free, and have not been in contact with a COVID case in the past 14 days.  This may be a paper you sign when you arrive at the workplace, or the employer may require you to fill out an online form before you even start your commute.  As long as these certifications only ask about your COVID-19 symptoms, whether you are COVID-19 positive, and whether you’ve been exposed, those certifications are allowed. If the employer is asking you other medical questions, call an attorney.
      • Watch this space.  The rules are changing almost weekly.  What was correct last week may not be correct this week.  When in doubt, call an attorney.
    • What’s the difference between an antibody test and a viral test?
      • Antibody tests involve blood work.  They show whether someone has previously had the virus. The EEOC considers an antibody test a “medical examination” under the ADA.  In light of the CDC’s guidance that state that antibody testing can produce false positives, the EEOC has deemed antibody tests as impermissible medical examinations or inquiries for current employees. 
      • Viral tests check the mucus to detect if a person is currently infected and contagious.  Viral tests can be achieved with swabs and are relatively non-invasive.
    • What about a new employer?
      • If you have a conditional offer of employment, the employer is allowed to send you for a medical evaluation to make sure you are fit to perform the essential functions of your job, as long as the employer requires all new employees to undergo testing.  Any medical exams are permitted between a conditional offer of employment and the employee’s start date. 
      • An employer may delay the start date or withdraw the job offer if there is medical evidence that you are currently positive for COVID-19.
  • Can my employer make me wear a face mask?
    • 99% of the time, yes.
    • If you have a disability that precludes you from wearing a face mask, you will need to request a reasonable accommodation, which involves your doctor providing medical documentation of your condition.
    • Be aware that COVID-19 is considered a “direct threat,” so if you have medical documentation showing that you cannot wear a face mask, and your job cannot be done remotely, the likely outcome is termination – not because of your disability, but because the employer can’t risk having you in the workplace without PPE.
  • What if a person in my home is at high risk of serious health problems due to COVID-19?
    • The employer is not required to accommodate you due to the health conditions of a person in your household.
    • If you cannot telework due to needing to care for a high-risk family member, you may be eligible for FMLA, EFMLEA, or New York Paid Family Leave.  Note that these protections require medical documentation showing that the person needs you to provide care – so if the concern is simply that you don’t want to expose a person who is capable of caring for themselves, you might not have much luck getting time off under these statutes.
  • What if I am recovering from COVID-19?
    • COVID-19 is considered a “serious health condition” for purposes of workplace law.  As such, you may have accommodation and leave rights under the ADA, FMLA, EFMLEA, New York State Human Rights Law, and/or New York State Paid Leave [not to be confused with NYS Paid Family Leave, which gives you time off to care for other people]. 
    • If you are recovering from COVID-19 and believe you are ready to return to work, or if you need some more time before you’re ready to return to work, your employer may need to get medical documentation from your health care provider.  The employer is allowed to get information that will enable it to determine whether you can perform the essential functions of your job, whether more leave is warranted, and what, if any, accommodations it might be able to offer you. 
    • If you are concerned about returning to the workplace due to an underlying condition that puts you especially at risk, then it’s appropriate to ask for a reasonable accommodation.  If your work can be done remotely, you may be able to get an accommodation that allows you to do telework.
    • If your job cannot be done remotely, it’s likely the only accommodation an employer can offer is more leave.  Do not ask for indefinite leave – an employer faced with a request for indefinite leave has an easy out for terminating your employment.  Make sure your leave request has a definite end date.  It is more difficult for an employer to deny a request for additional leave as an accommodation when there is a definite end date to the leave.

Reopening is a hopeful development for people who want to “get back to normal.” But, as continually repeated by the media, social media, experts, and politicians, there is no “normal” any more.  You may find yourself returning to a very different workplace than the one you left. The majority of employers are trying to create workplace rules that keep workers safe – but you don’t have to let yourself be exploited in the name of workplace safety.  The above guidance may help you navigate some common workplace pitfalls. When in doubt, call an attorney. 

Be safe.

COVID-19 In The New York Workplace – Part IX: Working From Home and Social Media

Please note that the information contained in this post is for informational purposes and is not to be considered legal advice. This blog post does not create or imply an attorney-client relationship.  If you would like to discuss your particular circumstances with us, please set up a consultation by contacting the Satter Ruhlen Law Firm at 315-471–0405 or through our website (https://www.satterlaw.com/contact-us/).  We look forward to walking you through your workplace rights.

It’s a familiar feeling. You’re on work time. You’ve been at it diligently all morning. You just reached a stopping point and need a break, but you don’t want to step away from the computer. So you hop on to Facebook, and there you see a post that you just have to reply to.

Regardless of whether you’re working from home or in the office (remember the office?) your social media activity is being monitored by your employer. Some employers install software on your work accounts so they can see when you stop working. Others just watch your Twitter account. You know all those coworkers you friended and followed?  They’re going to tell the boss what you said. If they don’t, their friends will tell.

So what gets you into trouble?

First, if your employer has a social media policy, follow it. For example, if the employer says “No Social Media During Work Hours,” that means no social media during work hours. Violating the social media policy can and will get you fired. Other policies allow you to use social media, but require you to refrain from discussing an employer or the employer’s products. Some of these policies are legal, and some are not. The problem is, to find out if a policy is legal, you might have to get fired first and then sue. That’s a mighty expensive way to get information. So unless you are working closely with an attorney (either your own or the Union’s) on the specifics of your case, it’s not a good idea to violate the employer’s social media policies.

Second, don’t publish confidential information. You know those cute pictures of your home office that you posted at the beginning of the shutdown?  Make sure you didn’t accidentally post a picture of your computer screen or confidential documents. Don’t publish pictures, names, or birthdates of patients or long term care facility residents. Don’t publish client info. Don’t publish financials, customer lists, social security numbers, passwords, code, or research results. Don’t publish the employer’s secret recipe for life-changing chocolate chip cookies if the employer is in the business of selling life-changing chocolate chip cookies. If it’s anything that the employer has any arguable interest in protecting, don’t publish it. You’ll get fired, and you might get sued.[1] 

Third, racism and sexism are quick and easy ways to get fired, whether or not they happen on social media. The distinguishing feature of social media is, once you’ve posted it, it’s out there forever. You can delete the post, but any clever 12-year-old can resuscitate it, take a screenshot, and will inevitably share it with the boss. Or the media will get hold of it, and the employer will know the next day. Bottom line: if you want to keep your job, don’t be racist or sexist at all, and that includes social media.

Wait, what about my First Amendment rights?

The First Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits the government from interfering with your freedom of speech in certain circumstances. It does not prohibit private actors from taking actions against you because of what you said. So if you work for a private or not-for-profit entity, you don’t have first amendment rights in the workplace.

If you work for the government (including a state agency or subdivision), the question gets complicated. Theoretically a public employer can’t retaliate against you for posting about a matter of public concern. But if your post has to do with a matter of personal interest to you as an employee (for instance, because you don’t agree with how you are instructed to perform your job), then the post is not protected, even if it has some connection to a matter of public interest. Moreover, if the post presents a potential conflict of interest or interferes with the public employer’s ability to discharge its official duties, the protection is lost.

The difference between matters of public concern and matters of personal interest has spawned endless litigation, so for practical purposes the only way to know whether what you are posting is protected from a first amendment perspective is to lose your job and then litigate. As above, it’s an awfully expensive way to make a determination.

Isn’t there anything I can talk about online?

Yes. If you are complying with your employer’s social media policies, you’re probably ok posting pictures of your cat, your kids, tasteful funnies, and other non-offensive, non-work related matters. (But please use your common sense and don’t post anything that could endanger you or your loved ones.) 

You can also use social media to speak out about terms and conditions of employment if they affect other employees as well as you. That means that you probably won’t get away with complaining because the boss disciplined you for wearing the wrong polo shirt, but if the boss continually shorts your whole shift on overtime payments, you may be able to get away with commenting about that on social media. Don’t use vulgarity or threats when you’re doing it, or you can lose the protection.

New York State Labor Law protects lawful off-duty conduct, including off-duty political activities, among other legal off-duty activities. But there are serious limits to the law. Off-duty political activities are not protected if you’re using the employer’s equipment or accounts. This means if you are working from home on an employer-provided computer, your political activity on that computer is not protected, even if you engage in it after hours. Also, as discussed above, if you work for the government, don’t count on this law to protect your political activities even if you engage in them on your own equipment after your shift is over. Moreover, employers get a big break on New York’s lawful off-duty conduct rule:  If they have a good faith belief that they are acting in accordance with law, enforcing a workplace policy, or that the employee’s conduct is illegal, then there is no violation even if they are wrong.

Please remember that just because you’re not supposed to get fired doesn’t mean you won’t get fired. Some employers will terminate you anyway, forcing you to spend a lot of money on a lawsuit to get your job back or to recover your pay. This isn’t any different from what employers could do in the days before social media – it’s just that it can be easier to see what you’re doing because of social media.

Social media is a wonderful tool for keeping us together during the pandemic. Being wise about using this tool when working from home may save your job. 


[1] Many employers require employees to sign some kind of confidentiality agreement. You may have signed one when you started to work, or it may have been in a stack of documents you got one day. If you violate a confidentiality agreement, even inadvertently, it can mean enormous legal trouble. Try to keep track of what you’ve signed.

COVID-19 In The New York Workplace – Part VI: Telework

Please note that the information contained in this post is for informational purposes and is not to be considered legal advice. This blog post does not create or imply an attorney-client relationship.  If you would like to discuss your particular circumstances with us, please set up a consultation by contacting the Satter Ruhlen Law Firm at 315-471-0405 or through our website (https://www.satterlaw.com/contact-us/).  We look forward to walking you through your workplace rights.

All of a sudden a lot of us are telecommuters.  For those of us who never experienced this, it’s hard to understand how our workplace protections work – after all, we’re not in the workplace, technically.  But as it turns out, there are still rules that apply, no matter where you’re doing the work.  Here are some of the rights you should be aware of.

Workplace Posters

You know those posters in the breakroom that no one reads?  Well, if you are telecommuting, you may start receiving those same posters via mail, email, and if available, on the company’s internal websites.  One poster that you should be seeing soon is the recently-released US Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division poster describing your rights under the FFCRA. It’s not a bad idea to have a look at those posters—you may have rights you didn’t even know about. 

The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) 

The FLSA is why you have weekends, overtime hours, and minimum wage.  The employer must pay you for all hours during which you have been “suffered to work.”  Because of this requirement, your employer may be hypervigilant about how you record your hours and what happens if you fail to comply with those requirements.  Employers are allowed to discipline and terminate employees who fail to comply with policies that prohibit unauthorized overtime. Therefore, it is important that you as a worker be equally hypervigilant about recording your time correctly and not working more hours than your employer authorizes. 

The Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA)

Surprise!  Your home office (or in my case, my dining room table) is now an OSHA site.  But OSHA will not hold your employer liable for safety violations because the employer cannot be expected to control how you set up your home office.  If you do call in an OSHA violation on yourself, OSHA will inform you of the policy you’ve violated and, if you make the request, will let the employer know that there has been a complaint.  But OSHA will not be citing your employer for the snarl of electrical cables you have running across your hallway.

Nevertheless, because of potential workers’ compensation liability, your employer may require you to report any work-related injuries or illnesses because the employer may have reporting requirements.  So if you are injured while you are working from home, and the injury is “directly related to the performance of work rather than to the general home environment or setting,” you may still be required to report that injury.  If your employer requires you to use a particular device in your work, the employer could still be liable for injury caused by the device.  Therefore, the employer may be issuing safety rules for your home office.  It’s a good idea to follow them.

The Americans With Disabilities Act

As discussed in detail in Part V , the employer may have a duty to provide you a reasonable accommodation while you’re working from home.  If you have an accommodation that helps you use a computer at the workplace, and you are working on an employer-issued computer at home, it is possible that the accommodation applies at home.  Whether you can get the accommodation at home will depend on its reasonableness; therefore, it’s unlikely that an employer would be required to install an elevator in your home, but the employer may be required to allow you to continue to use text to speech software that allows you to perform the essential functions of your job. 

Cyber Security

 Employers are very concerned about their data, and they are very concerned about what you do with that data.  You may find yourself subject to much more stringent security measures than what you’re used to, such as what types of connections or equipment you can use, where you can save files, and what you can use employer-issued devices to do.  These rules may or may not be consistent or practicable.  If you have a concern about how a cyber security rule is affecting your ability to perform your job, whether it’s infringing upon an accommodation or eating into your non-work time, document the effect carefully in real time.[1]  The documentation may save your bacon if the employer decides you haven’t complied with its cyber-security rules. 


[1] An email sent to yourself is date-stamped and time-stamped.  Just type a note to yourself stating the date, the time, what happened, and how it affected your work.  Include relevant details (how, what, when, where, who).  Make sure you use your personal email for these notes. Keep your emails in a special folder.  IT’S ALMOST NEVER A GOOD IDEA SEND AN EMAIL FROM YOUR WORK ADDRESS TO YOUR PERSONAL EMAIL.  The employer can track that, and will use it against you.

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