Asked in Employment Law for Florida

Q: I just want to know if I feel that my employer was negligent on keeping us safe from covid-19??

I express to my employer that I did not feel safe when I went back to work due to covid-19 but I have to work so I had no choice but to go back when I get there I noticed that people are rarely wearing their masks there barely practicing social distancing the supervisors and employees that I questioned about the cleaning said that they did clean in there but the training room when we were in the garbage wasn't even being thrown out which leads me to believe that they weren't cleaning that room and also I tried to contact the main owner but he didn't get back to me till after we already were exposed to an employee that was in the same training room with us for days and days

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1 Lawyer Answer
Charles M.  Baron
Charles M. Baron
Answered
  • Hollywood, FL
  • Licensed in Florida

A: Not sure if you are asking about employment rights or ability to bring a claim for money damages, or both.

Either way, your employer must follow all government-mandated Covid-19 restrictions. So step one is see exactly what mandated restrictions apply to your type of work. If you can't figure out how to find that out, you can hire an attorney to look into it. If the employer is violating those restrictions, you can complain to management (or have an attorney do so), and if you are fired for doing that, it would be illegal retaliation, giving rise to a potential claim for money damages against the employer, in addition to a potential claim for reemployment assistance (also called unemployment compensation). If you happen to become ill on the job due to employer failure comply with the restrictions and/or negligence, you would have a potential worker's compensation claim.

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