BOSTON (WHDH) - Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey is urging employers to offer paid sick leave to workers who may incur financial burdens if diagnosed with the coronavirus and forced into quarantine.
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Healey said Tuesday that Bay State employers and employees need to work together to handle sick time as the spread of the coronavirus leads to more self-quarantines.
She stressed the importance of workers staying home if symptoms of the virus are present but also explained that she understands the concerns about running out of paid sick time.
“If you do not feel well, do not go to work and put others at risk,” Healey said. “And we want to work with the business community and employers right now in making sure that workers are able to get paid.”
When asked about the typical two-week quarantine that comes with a coronavirus diagnosis or suspected case, Healey encouraged businesses to work together with employers.
“Collaboration — both from the employer side and the greater business community. Perhaps, ultimately, from government, too,” she said. “Because we’ve got to find a way to work through this. It is a challenge.”
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Under the earned sick time law, most workers in Massachusetts have 40 hours of protected sick time. Healey said anyone who thinks they are being denied sick time should call the attorney general’s office’s fair labor hotline.
“People should call my office, call my fair labor hotline. I’ve got my consumer hotline up. We’re ready to take questions and we can work through those issues,” Healey said.
But workers and employers, with help from the government, should figure out ways to deal with leave while not losing pay, Healey said.
“We want to work with the business community and employers right now to make sure workers are able to get paid,” Healey said. “The government has to find a way to work through this, it is a challenge.”
In Boston, officials are in the process of determining who is essential personnel and who can work from home.
“Any employees that traveled on their own, to Level 2, Level 3 countries, we’re asking to self-quarantine for 14 days,” Mayor Martin J. Walsh said. “We are not penalizing them with sick time, we are going to be working with them to make sure that they are safe, and the employees they work with are safe, as well.”
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For more information on earned sick time, click here.
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