Coronavirus and labor law: Know your rights, from paid sick leave to working from home

From Los Angeles Times 

As Lee Olesky heard the first reports of coronavirus in Sacramento County, where she is employed as a social worker, she began to panic.

Olesky, 41, visits the homes of sick and elderly people on a daily basis, and worried she could carry the new illness to her clients. At the office, she doesn’t have an assigned seat but works at “floating” cubicles used by countless other field workers.

The anxiety built until, last week, she casually asked her supervisor whether she could work from home for the rest of the month as a precaution. Her supervisor was skeptical, and “kind of made a face,” but approved her request. Still, Olesky is required to venture out into the world for field visits daily as part of her job. She’s not alone.

The novel coronavirus outbreak has sparked drastic measures to prevent its spread across California, the United States and the world, and on Wednesday was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization.

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