Just because people can travel when contagion is surging during the coronavirus pandemic, should they? And given the risk that they will return to their jobs after their vacation getaways and share the love, is management within its rights to put employee travel restrictions in place before the worst happens?

There’s no cut-and-dry response to that, even though employers are rightly concerned as numerous workplaces become COVID-19 hotspots. Oil refineries are seeing contagion surges. Workplace break rooms in Orange County, Florida have been identified as epicenters. Meatpacking and poultry processors are unrelenting hotspots: In late June, the United Food and Commercial Workers Union said 238 of its front-line workers had died; 29,000 workers in total were infected or exposed.

Do these trends make employee travel restrictions – for workers’ personal excursions – an overreach by management? Here’s some guidance for moving forward:

  1. Your legal standing counts. Check with your legal team on state and federal laws before taking any actions on employee travel restrictions. The prevalence in the U.S. of “at will” employment gives some latitude in employers’ policies that are designed to keep everyone safe. Some states, though (like Colorado and New York) prohibit employers from taking adverse actions to their workers’ lawful activities that don’t occur on work or office premises.
  2. Incorporate personal travel in COVID-19 readiness plans. As your organization fine-tunes COVID-19-related policies and procedures, make sure recommendations for staff personal/vacation travel is wrapped in. Your emphasis should be on education and monitoring, keeping the requirements of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 front and center to avoid unintentional discrimination. It’s also helpful to appoint a coordinator to manage and monitor your response program.
  3. Strongly suggest disclosures from all. One policy is to have all employees disclose travel plans so that the risk can be evaluated for potential impact on the greater workplace. Heavy-handed employee travel restrictions aren’t necessary, but you can work with people to help them evaluate the risk – if the destination has high COVID spread, if they will be with large or small groups and how travel will be undertaken.
  4. Provide resources to inform travel plans. Make sure employees are equipped with government informational sources on where travel is restricted and where self-quarantines may be required. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention maintains COVID-19 Travel Recommendations by Country, one helpful site.
  5. Check for health when vacationers return. It’s also important to monitor employees upon their return for signs and symptoms of the coronavirus. You may require symptom checks, testing (with negative results), self-quarantines. You also may require a doctor’s note certifying the returning employee’s health from particularly high-risk locations. Again, however, this requirement must be enforced equally. Also important is to follow government guidelines on paid and/or unpaid leave for self-quarantines, should they be needed.

The idea of an employer instituting employee travel restrictions when it’s personal time, versus business, that’s involved, may stoke some discomfort among everyone involved. But these are not normal times, and there’s too much at stake to leave the issue to chance.

Get the latest information, guidance and resources on Coronavirus (COVID-19) to help you protect what matters most on our Coronavirus Resource Center.