Legal-Ease: Work Responsibility during quarantine

Regardless of the contemporary classification of a business as essential or non-essential, many employers have temporarily or permanently dismissed employees from their work positions.  Further, some employees who have been asked to work have refused.  As explained below, most employers may permanently terminate an employee’s employment during the virus crisis regardless of the business’s classification as essential or non-essential.

 

Employees of essential businesses and employees of non-essential businesses who are provided a safe working environment must work. For business that are non-essential under the law, most employers have allowed employees to not work or work from home.  However, if the work environment is safe, even though the temporary government orders preclude people from leaving home to get to and from a non-essential job, when an employee fails to work, Ohio law generally allows the employer to terminate the employee’s employment.

Read more about this in Lee’s article in the Lima News here: “Legal-Ease: Work Responsibility during quarantine,”

Source: LimaOhio.com, “Legal-Ease: Work Responsibility during quarantine,” by Lee R. Schroeder, April 18, 2020.

Lee R. Schroeder is an Ohio licensed attorney at Schroeder Law LLC in Putnam County. He limits his practice to business, real estate, estate planning and agriculture issues in northwest Ohio. He can be reached at Lee@LeeSchroeder.com or at 419-659-2058. This article is not intended to serve as legal advice, and specific advice should be sought from the licensed attorney of your choice based upon the specific facts and circumstances that you face.

Posted in Small Business.