In a June 24 ruling a Chicago Judge found that the world's largest 'burger chain' wasn't doing enough in a local case when it comes to protecting employees from COVID-19. While the food giant had supplied face coverings, gloves, hand sanitizers and even provided monitoring of workers against possible infections as well as provided education on how COVID-19 was spread, they had failed to enforce two key essentials, 'correct mask wearing' and 'adequate social distancing'.
The Judge noted that these factors alone, despite the other efforts by McDonald's, "might very well be a matter of life or death to individuals who come in contact with employees, or for employees who come in contact with infected co-workers, or restaurant patrons." Essentially the Judge determines that the restaurant in this case failed to keep workers safe amid the COVID-1 pandemic specifically as it relates to 'masks and social distancing', in other words they failed to provide sufficient protections despite having provided other protections.
Obviously this is just one case, and there are many more cases of on-going litigation. Each case will have a profound impact in the jurisdiction(s) in which they occur, and simply because a case is decided in one jurisdiction in one manner does not mean that it will serve as a precedence for any other case even in the same jurisdiction, and certain not in a differing jurisdiction.
Insightful Accountant will do our best to keep our eyes open, and our ears to the telegraph to see what we can find out about all of these cases as they are decided so that we can report to you on the details of these cases and their outcomes. We know that many of you are interested in knowing how case decisions related to COVID-19 may impact the potential for small businesses involving your clients, or even your own business.