Workers' Comp Wednesday: More Tips for Some of Your Small Business Client

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A couple of weeks ago I begin a series on tips for your small businesses that were having difficulties adjusting their operations, especially those related to their workers, during COVID-19. The concern was how those adjustments might impact workers' compensation. This article continues that series (after a 1-week break) regarding COVID-19 operational tips for some of the small businesses you might advise and consult within your ProAdvisor practice. These tips regard primarily risk reduction for those businesses that are continuing to operate, or which may be starting to reopen under the new guidelines.

In my last 'tip article' I wrote about Maintenance/Janitorial/Maid Services. Today I want to write about small hotels (like bed & breakfasts), restaurants and transportation businesses. Some of these facilities operated in restricted service modes during the COVID-19 crisis. For example, many restaurants shifted their services to provide only carryout/curbside pick-up and delivery.

For more information on how COVID-19 has impacted worker's comp in small businesses, join our webinar presented by Matthew Fulton on May 6, 2020 at 2:00 p.m. Eastern Time. You can register here.

For this webinar, we're taking questions related to how COVID-19 has impacted worker's comp and small businesses and we'll try our best to answer them live during the webinar. You can submit questions here.

Now that things are starting to open up again, with pretty much each State and in some instances each City controlling what type of business can open when and under what circumstances, it’s not only important to ensure compliance with those standards but to also follow some basic risk mitigation practices.  During and immediately following pandemic events, places where large groups of people gather or pass through, such as those we are looking at in ‘today’s tip’ require a higher level of attention to risk mitigation measures to ensure the safety of customers/guests and employees/workers.

As employers in these types of businesses identify critical staff needed for their transitional operations, risk control measures may include additions or changes to work processes and additional Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), along with related procedures. But changes made to business operations, including changes in operating hours, reduced staffing levels, and differing service commitments, could themselves create additional exposures and risks. Standard best practices apply when either implementing or expanding the role of PPE in a facility:

  • Ensuring employee competency/understanding of PPE
  • Training in the proper use of PPE
  • Delivery of PPE (documented)
  • On-going evaluation of proper fit and usage of PPE (documented)
  • On-going evaluation of the adequacy of supply of PPE (documented)

Many of these facilities and operations will require a reassessment of their risks and exposures along with the implementation of additional measures for mitigating exposures even after the peak of the crisis. Standard best practices for mitigation still apply:

  • Evaluate the procedures versus the level of risk reduction achieved, and
  • Ensure new procedures are documented, communicated, understood, and adhered to, and
  • Evaluate often to ensure adequacy and compliance, in consultation with relevant professionals

Dealing with the post-COVID-19 crisis will be just as challenging as the crisis itself, perhaps more so, as businesses making up the small hotel, restaurant, and transportation sector resume operations and return to serving the public. There will undoubtedly be a period in which hesitancy on the part of the public and the employees in these sectors will both lead to confusion and misunderstandings. With many of these small businesses also limited in the number of patrons they can serve, for example many restaurants can only seat one-half as many tables when they initially re-open, staffing will be reduced.

The net effect of these changes means that the level of service will probably not be ‘what patrons’ remember no matter how hard staff attempts to work.  Certainly, the environment will not be the same with your friendly neighborhood Bartender mixing your cocktail wearing an N-95 mask, a face shield, and a pair of surgical gloves. It makes it pretty hard to carry on your typical bar jargon conversation, and that probably means the Bartender will see his tips go down from both the number of patrons and friend factor combined.

Small transportation sector providers, like taxi, Uber and Lyft drivers who may be working for either themselves or smaller companies (such as in small towns) will also experience a new range of mandates aimed at protecting both themselves and their riders. Again, the idea of everyone entering your vehicle wearing a mask, not to mention that every 'vehicle for hire' driver also wearing a mask almost makes one cringe at the thought of 'days of old' when armed highwaymen robbed the stage coaches of the old west.

Such requirements along with those for sanitizing the passenger compartment surfaces between each transport not only increases the cost of the ride, but also the time associated with each, effectively cutting into the profits,  While some states are now struggling with whether these individuals should be covered by Workers' Compensation, the courts are out, and the idea that they will be covered for COVID-19 will be even a larger topic for likely litigation.

So, in the long run, the question may end up being what the return to work impact is over and above what the layoff from work was. Only time will tell in each of these situations.

For more information on how COVID-19 has impacted worker's comp in small businesses, join our webinar presented by Matthew Fulton on May 6, 2020 at 2:00 p.m. Eastern Time. You can register here.

For this webinar, we're taking questions related to how COVID-19 has impacted worker's comp and small businesses and we'll try our best to answer them live during the webinar. You can submit questions here.