Stay at Home Orders & Travel Documents

Some confusion has come up that employees need travel documents in order to travel to and from their place of employment during a “Stay at Home” order. While there are employers who have issued these documents on their own letterhead, generally it is not necessary to provide these to your employees.

As of March 27, 2020, CNN reported that by the end of the week, 23 states would have active orders for residents to stay at home. This does not include cities or counties that have issued stay at home orders for their respective jurisdictions.

Most stay at home orders still allow people to go to grocery stores, pharmacies, doctors’ offices, hospitals, and gas stations, as well as go to work if they work for an essential business. “Essential businesses” are defined by the issuing municipality, and people with questions should contact either the office that issued the order (i.e. governor’s office, mayor’s office, etc.) or their local health department.

While there haven’t been any orders that require travel documents, here are some suggestions for employers to help employees with their concerns:

· Explain how the company is an essential business,

· Assure employees that they don’t need travel documents to travel to and from the company,

· Publish the stay at home order or the link to the order so that employees can read it,

· As of April 1, 2020, post the required Families First Coronavirus Response Act poster and work with employees who need emergency paid leave.

These can be scary times for a lot of people. However, frequent and clear communication with your employees can go a long way to ease anxiety.