In this pandemic where the employer must ensure the health and safety of its employees in the workplace, is the employer permitted to test for COVID-19 before they enter a work site? Most employers are wrestling with this issue as steps are being taken to re-open businesses.

Initially, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) stated that the employers could monitor their employees’ body temperature consistent with the ADA’s direct threat principles. The EEOC did not address whether an employer was permitted to test for COVID-19. However, on April 23, 2020, the EEOC provided employers with guidance on this very question in its updated online publication “What You Should Know About COVID-19 and the ADA, the Rehabilitation Act, and Other EEO Laws:”

A.6. May an employer administer a COVID-19 test )a test to detect the presence of the COVID-19 virus) before permitting employees to enter the workplace?

The ADA requires that any mandatory medical test of employees be “job related and consistent with business necessity.” Applying this standard to the current circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic, employers may take steps to determine if employees entering the workplace have COVID-19 because an individual with the virus will pose a direct threat to the health of others. Therefore an employer may choose to administer COVID-19 testing to employees before they enter the workplace to determine if they have the virus.

Consistent with the ADA standard, employers should ensure that the tests are accurate and reliable. For example, employers may review guidance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration about what may or may not be considered safe and accurate testing, as well as guidance from CDC or other public health authorities, and check for updates. Employers may wish to consider the incidence of false-positives or false-negatives associated with a particular test. Finally, note that accurate testing only reveals if the virus is currently present; a negative test does not mean the employee will not acquire the virus later.

Based on guidance from medical and public health authorities, employers should still require – to the greatest extent possible – that employees observe infection control practices (such as social distancing, regular handwashing, and other measures) in the workplace to prevent transmission of COVID-19.

As we are able to test more individuals, the EEOC’s position gives employers welcome comfort that they may test employees for COVID-19 before allowing them to enter the work site without violating federal employment laws. Employers are to ensure that tests administered to their employees have been evaluated for accuracy and reliability. Further, employers should ensure that tests administered are conducted in a consistent, non-discriminatory, and confidential manner.

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The EEOC Permits Employee Testing For COVID-19 Before Entering The Work Site

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