{"id":1433,"date":"2020-06-18T22:23:13","date_gmt":"2020-06-18T22:23:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/eeoc-says-employers-cant-require-antibody-testing\/"},"modified":"2020-06-18T22:23:13","modified_gmt":"2020-06-18T22:23:13","slug":"eeoc-says-employers-cant-require-antibody-testing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/eeoc-says-employers-cant-require-antibody-testing\/","title":{"rendered":"EEOC Says Employers Can\u2019t Require Antibody Testing"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Employees can\u2019t be required to take COVID-19 antibody testing without violating the Americans with Disabilities Act. This was the statement made by the EEOC in its updated technical assistance publication addressing questions under the Federal Equal Employment Opportunity Laws related to the pandemic, including COVID-19 antibody testing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In light of current CDC Interim Guidelines, the ADA currently does <u>not<\/u> allow employers to require antibody testing before allowing employees to re-enter the workplace. For greater detail on COVID-19 antibody testing and the workplace, please reference the EEOC\u2019s \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.eeoc.gov\/wysk\/what-you-should-know-about-covid-19-and-ada-rehabilitation-act-and-other-eeo-laws\">What You Should Know About COVID-19 and the American with Disabilities Act (ADA), the Rehabilitation Act, and Other EEO Laws<\/a>.\u201d An excerpt is provided below:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Q:<\/strong> <strong>CDC said in its\u00a0<\/strong>Interim Guidelines<strong>\u00a0that antibody test results \u201cshould not be used to make decisions about returning persons to the workplace.\u201d In light of this CDC guidance, under the ADA may an employer require antibody testing before permitting employees to re-enter the workplace?<\/strong>\u00a0<em>(6\/17\/20)<\/em><br><strong>A:<\/strong> No. An antibody test constitutes a medical examination under the ADA.\u00a0In light of CDC\u2019s\u00a0Interim Guidelines\u00a0that antibody test results \u201cshould not be used to make decisions about returning persons to the workplace,\u201d an antibody test at this time does not meet the ADA\u2019s \u201cjob related and consistent with business necessity\u201d standard for medical examinations or inquiries for current employees.\u00a0Therefore, requiring antibody testing before allowing employees to re-enter the workplace is not allowed under the ADA.\u00a0Please note that an antibody test is different from a test to determine if someone has an active case of COVID-19 (i.e. a viral test).\u00a0 The EEOC has already stated that COVID-19 viral tests are\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.eeoc.gov\/wysk\/what-you-should-know-about-covid-19-and-ada-rehabilitation-act-and-other-eeo-laws?utm_content=&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_name=&amp;utm_source=govdelivery&amp;utm_term=#A.6\">permissible under the ADA<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The EEOC will continue to closely monitor CDC\u2019s recommendations and could update this discussion in response to changes in CDC\u2019s recommendations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><u>Antibody Testing and Return to Work Requirements<br><\/u><\/strong>Many employers are implementing certain safety measures to reduce the risk of COVID-19 exposure in the workplace. While the EEOC has approved employers taking temperatures and conducting COVID-19 testing as return to work requirements, it has said no to antibody testing.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The EEOC\u2019s updated guidance serves as a reminder that employers with the best of intentions must be careful not to take actions that violate the employment laws that govern the workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As always, please <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/attorney\/kenneth-n-winkler\/\">let me know<\/a> if I can help.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Employees can\u2019t be required to take COVID-19 antibody testing without violating the Americans with Disabilities Act. This was the statement made by the EEOC in its updated technical assistance publication addressing questions under the Federal Equal Employment Opportunity Laws related to the pandemic, including COVID-19 antibody testing. In light of current CDC Interim Guidelines, the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":1434,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_mo_disable_npp":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3,10],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>EEOC Says Employers Can\u2019t Require Antibody Testing - Berman Fink Van Horn P.C.<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/eeoc-says-employers-cant-require-antibody-testing\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"EEOC Says Employers Can\u2019t Require Antibody Testing - Berman Fink Van Horn P.C.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Employees can\u2019t be required to take COVID-19 antibody testing without violating the Americans with Disabilities Act. This was the statement made by the EEOC in its updated technical assistance publication addressing questions under the Federal Equal Employment Opportunity Laws related to the pandemic, including COVID-19 antibody testing. In light of current CDC Interim Guidelines, the [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/eeoc-says-employers-cant-require-antibody-testing\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Berman Fink Van Horn P.C.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-06-18T22:23:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Antibody-testing.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"627\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Berman Fink Van Horn\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Berman Fink Van Horn\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/eeoc-says-employers-cant-require-antibody-testing\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/eeoc-says-employers-cant-require-antibody-testing\/\",\"name\":\"EEOC Says Employers Can\u2019t Require Antibody Testing - Berman Fink Van Horn P.C.\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/eeoc-says-employers-cant-require-antibody-testing\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/eeoc-says-employers-cant-require-antibody-testing\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Antibody-testing.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-06-18T22:23:13+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-06-18T22:23:13+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/#\/schema\/person\/0d284d556606ade11404fcbd125efdb9\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/eeoc-says-employers-cant-require-antibody-testing\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/eeoc-says-employers-cant-require-antibody-testing\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/eeoc-says-employers-cant-require-antibody-testing\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Antibody-testing.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Antibody-testing.jpg\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":627},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/eeoc-says-employers-cant-require-antibody-testing\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"EEOC Says Employers Can\u2019t Require Antibody Testing\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/\",\"name\":\"Berman Fink Van Horn P.C.\",\"description\":\"A Business Law Firm In Atlanta\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/#\/schema\/person\/0d284d556606ade11404fcbd125efdb9\",\"name\":\"Berman Fink Van Horn\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/deb7805c35c49d2de3c1f64d329a518a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/deb7805c35c49d2de3c1f64d329a518a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Berman Fink Van Horn\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/author\/bfv\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"EEOC Says Employers Can\u2019t Require Antibody Testing - Berman Fink Van Horn P.C.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/eeoc-says-employers-cant-require-antibody-testing\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"EEOC Says Employers Can\u2019t Require Antibody Testing - Berman Fink Van Horn P.C.","og_description":"Employees can\u2019t be required to take COVID-19 antibody testing without violating the Americans with Disabilities Act. This was the statement made by the EEOC in its updated technical assistance publication addressing questions under the Federal Equal Employment Opportunity Laws related to the pandemic, including COVID-19 antibody testing. In light of current CDC Interim Guidelines, the [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/eeoc-says-employers-cant-require-antibody-testing\/","og_site_name":"Berman Fink Van Horn P.C.","article_published_time":"2020-06-18T22:23:13+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":627,"url":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Antibody-testing.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Berman Fink Van Horn","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Berman Fink Van Horn","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/eeoc-says-employers-cant-require-antibody-testing\/","url":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/eeoc-says-employers-cant-require-antibody-testing\/","name":"EEOC Says Employers Can\u2019t Require Antibody Testing - Berman Fink Van Horn P.C.","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/eeoc-says-employers-cant-require-antibody-testing\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/eeoc-says-employers-cant-require-antibody-testing\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Antibody-testing.jpg","datePublished":"2020-06-18T22:23:13+00:00","dateModified":"2020-06-18T22:23:13+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/#\/schema\/person\/0d284d556606ade11404fcbd125efdb9"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/eeoc-says-employers-cant-require-antibody-testing\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/eeoc-says-employers-cant-require-antibody-testing\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/eeoc-says-employers-cant-require-antibody-testing\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Antibody-testing.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Antibody-testing.jpg","width":1200,"height":627},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/eeoc-says-employers-cant-require-antibody-testing\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"EEOC Says Employers Can\u2019t Require Antibody Testing"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/","name":"Berman Fink Van Horn P.C.","description":"A Business Law Firm In Atlanta","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/#\/schema\/person\/0d284d556606ade11404fcbd125efdb9","name":"Berman Fink Van Horn","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/deb7805c35c49d2de3c1f64d329a518a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/deb7805c35c49d2de3c1f64d329a518a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Berman Fink Van Horn"},"url":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/author\/bfv\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1433"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1433"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1433\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}