Last year, a coffee shop refused to let two employees work unless they wore masks to stop the spread of COVID-19. A pharmacy took the opposite position and sent a technician home for wearing a mask. At a facilities management company, a worker with pulmonary disorders making her susceptible to infection was denied a request to work remotely.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission brought cases in all three incidents, saying there were accommodations the businesses could have granted workers and that refusal to do so amounted to discrimination.

EEOC Chairwoman Charlotte Burrows was a featured speaker at NRF’s recent Retail Law Summit, and said those cases were just a few examples of challenges seen during the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic has created new situations where workers are being discriminated against while longstanding discrimination based on issues such as race, religion, gender or disabilities has continued, she said. And working women, people of color and older workers are being disproportionately impacted.

Burrows said her agency won’t hesitate to use its enforcement power to protect workers. But she would rather work with employers to avoid getting to the point where discrimination occurs.

“Our primary goal is to recognize that this a really tough thing that we’re all dealing with now and to make it as easy as possible to get the information out there for employers that are just trying to manage all of the different new issues that are coming up,” she...

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