Essential workers range from health care professionals and emergency workers to grocery store workers, delivery drivers, and police officers. What you may not know is these workers may have some extra protection.
How Can Essential Workers Protect Themselves This Flu Season?
The best outcome this flu season is essential workers staying healthy. Some key ways to protect yourself include:
While these steps aren’t full-proof, they are vital steps you can personally take while performing your essential duties during flu season.
What Happens If I Get The Flu As An Essential Worker?
If you do get the flu, it’s important to contact your supervisor right away and stay home. This year especially, there’s a chance you could also have COVID-19, so it’s important to isolate.
Ideally, you have sick leave or personal time, so you can stay home and recover while still receiving a paycheck.
However, in most cases, you will not qualify for worker’s compensation even if you were exposed to the flu at work. Because the flu is often so wide-spread, essential workers face the same risk as to the general public of contracting the disease.
There may be some exceptions for front-line workers with documented exposure, law enforcement personnel with direct contact with an infected person, or federal employees whose duties require them to work in an area where the flu has spread.
If a lockdown occurs again and only essential workers are required to come to work. They may be covered during their commute to and from the office.
If you’re worried about doing the right thing and staying home but losing out on much-needed income, reach out to the legal team at Hyland, Padilla, & Fowler. We provide free consultations to advise you on your case’s merits and recommend any documentation you need to gather. If you chose to work with us, we can investigate and fight to ensure you do not lose wages.