As of September 17, 2020, new California legislation titled SB 1159 was signed into law and will be effective immediately. This new law requires employers who have five (5) or more employees to report all employees who test positive for COVID-19 to their workers’ compensation insurance company. This reporting requirement applies to all employees that test positive for COVID-19 for both work-related and non-work-related cases.
A. Employer’s Reporting Obligations:
For any employee who tests positive for COVID-19 between July 6, 2020 and September 16, 2020 an employer must report specified information, as described below, to the workers’ compensation claims administrator by October 29, 2020 (30 business days from the effective date of SB 1159).
For any employee who tests positive for COVID-19 on or after September 17, 2020, you must report this to your worker’s compensation insurance carrier within three (3) business days. Once an employer knows or “reasonably should know” that an employee has tested positive for COVID-19, the employer must do all of the following:
1. Report a claim to your workers’ compensation insurance company.
2. If an employee believes they contracted COVID-19 at work, employers are required to report this as a workers’ compensation claim and provide the employee with a DWC-1 Claim Form.
3. If an employer or an employee believed the COVID-19 infection was not the result of workplace exposure, the employer is still required to report this occurrence. When making the report, do not include any personally identifiable information for employee(s) who have not alleged a workplace exposure.
B. Required Information:
When reporting a claim, an employer is required to provide ALL of the following information:
– The last day worked of the infected COVID-19 employee: The date of injury for employees who tested positive for COVID-19, is determined by the employee’s last day worked, not when they began to feel symptoms of COVID-19.
– The date the employee tested positive for COVID-19: This means the date on which the specimen was collected for testing and NOT when the results of the test come out.
– Medical Documentation of a positive test result: Employees must provide medical documentation from a doctor confirming a positive test for COVID-19. Please ask for this documentation, record the date you requested it and the date received. You are required to maintain these records in the employee’s file. It is recommended the requests be made in writing.
– Place(s) of Employment: Provide the address(es) of all locations the infected employee worked 14 days prior to testing positive and all locations the infected employee worked 14 days after testing positive for COVID-19. The law defines a specific place of employment as, “A specific place of employment means the building, store, facility, or agricultural field where an employee performs work at the employer’s direction.” In the case of an employee who performs work at the employer’s direction in multiple places of employment within 14 days of the employee’s positive test, the employee’s positive test shall be counted for each of those places of employment for the purpose of determining an outbreak. If an outbreak exists at any of those places of employment, that location is also considered the employee’s specific place of employment. A specific place of employment does not include the employee’s home or residence, unless the employee provides home health care services to another individual at the employee’s home or residence.
– Number of employees that tested positive for COVID-19 at each worksite: The employer must provide the highest number of employees who worked at each place of employment with the infected employee(s) on any day during that period of time.
Interested in learning more about SB 1159 and other laws related to COVID-19? Please visit http://www.labor.ca.gov/coronavirus 2019/ for more information.
