Employers will need to assess pandemic and workplace circumstances in order to justify mandatory COVID-19 testing of employees going forward, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announced in a July 12 guidance update.

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Job-Related and Necessary

The EEOC said that employers must show that coronavirus testing is job-related and consistent with business necessity, as defined by the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Until now, worksite COVID-19 testing was permitted without any required justification or assessment.

The agency provided several possible factors to consider when making an assessment, including:

• The level of community transmission.
• The vaccination status of employees.
• The degree of breakthrough infections of vaccinated workers.
• The transmissibility of current variants.
• The possible severity of illness from a current variant.
• Contacts employees may have with others during the course of their work.
• The potential impact on operations if an employee enters the workplace with COVID-19.

"This change is not meant to suggest that such testing is or is not warranted," the EEOC said. "Rather, the revised [guidance] acknowledges that evolving pandemic circumstances will require an individualized assessment by employers to determine whether such testing is warranted."

(U.S. EEOC)

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