London office managing partner Daniel Peyton, a member of McGuireWoods’ COVID-19 Response Team, was quoted in a March 3, 2020, Executive Grapevine article titled “Pandemic | Coronavirus: Where we are now,” in which he discussed economic and workplace ramifications of the virus.
Peyton said employers and their human resources departments “have an obligation to safeguard the health and safety of employees and provide a safe working environment.”
Regarding precautionary measures for employees, he said organizations “should not require travel to affected areas and should, as far as reasonable, prevent the introduction and spread of infection in the workplace (for example by facilitating employees to work remotely and, in extreme cases preventing access to the workplace).”