Last week I -- a student-- was called by our local Health Department and told that I must go under quarantine while they test a student who may have COVID-19. That night, my mother called her work and told them about the situation and tried to explain to them that the Health Department said that she herself did not need to be under quarantine and that she could still work. Despite this, her job explicitly told her that she could not go to work. Later this week, they also said that they would pay her for this time away from work, and now, this morning are saying that she should have been working this entire time and that they will NOT pay her! Is this against any potential laws?
This is not a temporary disability. If they told her they would pay her and aren’t, she may have a promissory estoppel claim but that would be difficult since she could not work anyway so did not change her position on reliance of that promise. If she is hourly she is not paid for time not worked. If she is exempt and worked part of the week, they would have to pay her the full week because she did not take off work for a dockable reason under the Fair Labor Standards Act.
Your mother needs to speak to a labor and employment lawyer as this act by her employer could be construed as discrimination by her employer based on a family member's temporary disability. COVID-19 is unprecedented in impacts on business and employer responses, so she may or may not have a claim (time will tell), but no attorney can give you a definitive answer about this issue as your mother would be the client, not you. While your desire to assist her is understandable, she needs to be the one asking these questions of a qualified attorney.
To assist any legal counsel from this point forward, she needs to get all communications with her employer IN WRITING (hard copy, email or text message) to generate a paper trail and document any phone calls or other conversations - dates, times and specifics, while the information is fresh in her memory.
Good luck!
