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COVID-19 Update: New Required Policies for Manufacturing Businesses, Warehousing Businesses, and Businesses engaged in Essential Construction Projects Effective April 10

COVID-19 Update: New Required Policies for Manufacturing Businesses, Warehousing Businesses, and Businesses engaged in Essential Construction Projects Effective April 10

On April 8, Governor Murphy signed Executive Order No. 122 (the “Order”). The Order provides that beginning on 8:00 p.m. on Friday, April 10, 2020, manufacturing businesses, warehousing businesses, and businesses engaged in essential construction projects must adopt additional policies to combat the effects of COVID-19.

At minimum, these policies must include the following:

1. Prohibit non-essential visitors from entering the worksite;

2. Limit worksite meetings, inductions, and workgroups to groups of fewer than ten individuals;

3. Require individuals to maintain six feet or more distance between them wherever possible;

4. Stagger work start and stop times where practical to limit employee proximity to one another when entering and leaving a worksite;

5. Stagger lunch breaks and work times where practicable;

6. Restrict the number of individuals who can access common areas, such as restrooms and breakrooms;

7. Require workers and visitors to wear cloth face coverings, except where doing so would inhibit the individual’s health or the individual is under two years of age, and require workers to wear gloves at the businesses’ expense. Where an individual declines to wear a face covering on the premises due to a medical condition that inhibits such usage, neither the business nor its staff shall require the individual to produce medical documentation verifying the stated condition;

8. Require infection control practices, such as regular hand washing, coughing and sneezing etiquette, and proper tissue usage and disposal;

9. Limit sharing of tools, equipment, and machinery;

10. Limit sharing of tools, equipment, and machinery;

11. Provide sanitization materials, such as hand sanitizer and sanitizing wipes, to workers and visitors, and;

12. Require frequent sanitization of high-touch areas like restrooms, breakrooms, equipment, and machinery.

All essential retail businesses, warehousing businesses, manufacturing businesses, and businesses performing essential construction projects must also adopt policies that include, at minimum, the following:

1. Immediately separate and send home workers who appear to have symptoms consistent with COVID-19;

2. Promptly notify workers of any known exposure to COVID-19 at the worksite. The notification must be consistent with confidentiality requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act and any other applicable laws;

3. Clean and disinfect the worksite in accordance with CDC guidelines when a worker at the site has been diagnosed with COVID-19 illness; and

4. Continue to follow guidelines and directives issued by the New Jersey Department of Health, the CDC and the Occupational Health and Safety Administration, as applicable, for maintaining a clean, safe and healthy work environment.

A business authorized to maintain in-person operations, such as owners of buildings used for commercial, industrial or other enterprises, including but not limited to facilities for warehousing, manufacturing, commercial offices, airports, grocery stores, universities, colleges, government, hotels, and residential buildings with at least 50 units, must adopt policies that include, at minimum, the following:

1. Clean and disinfect high-touch areas routinely in accordance with CDC guidelines;

2. Otherwise maintain cleaning procedures in all other areas of the facility; and

3. Ensure that the facility has a sufficient number of workers to perform cleaning protocols.

Executive Order No. 122, can be found here.

Please refer to our previous alert, Stop Order for All Non-Essential Construction Effective April 10, for clarifications on what the State defines as “essential construction projects”. If you have any questions or concerns about Executive Order No. 122, please reach out to the LCR COVID-19 Advisory Team at Laddey, Clark & Ryan, LLP:

Our attorneys can also be reached at: 973-729-1880.
 

Laddey, Clark, & Ryan, LLP, remains fully operational during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Please rest assured that our attorneys, paralegals, and staff continues to be available to you and to fulfill your evolving legal, business, and personal needs. Throughout this difficult period, you can expect that the team at Laddey, Clark, & Ryan will continue to answer your emails and calls promptly and be completely available to you, exemplifying the client service and responsiveness we have always been committed to providing.