Legal Risks Abound When Companies Bring Their Employees Back

As Americans return to the offices, shops, restaurants, and factories they left months ago, employers are wrestling with the legal consequences of getting U.S. workers back on the job while the pandemic is still spreading. Because there’s no cure or vaccine yet for Covid-19, two things are certain: People will get sick, and many will end up in court demanding safer working conditions or compensation for lost wages and medical bills.

Some employees already have filed lawsuits claiming companies including McDonald’s, Amazon.com, and Smithfield Foods aren’t doing enough to keep workers and their families free of coronavirus, even though employers are promising to follow such health guidelines as maintaining social distancing, improving sanitation, and providing personal protective gear. And legal experts see possible fights over other issues like privacy rights, age discrimination, or employees at greater risk of infection who are compelled to return too soon.