{"id":17006,"date":"2020-12-29T10:43:20","date_gmt":"2020-12-29T16:43:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/?p=17006"},"modified":"2020-12-29T10:43:20","modified_gmt":"2020-12-29T16:43:20","slug":"protect-your-business-from-government-subpoena-with-covid-protocols","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/editorials\/protect-your-business-from-government-subpoena-with-covid-protocols\/","title":{"rendered":"Protect your business from a government subpoena with COVID protocols"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the news category of \u201cabout time\u201d, Amazon is being subpoenaed by California<\/a> regarding their COVID safety protocols; could your company be next?<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re reading this, the chances that the state of California\u2014or any other state, for that matter\u2014will subpoena your business is slim. However, the government asking for documents related to safety protocols isn\u2019t uncommon, and present circumstances make such instances all the more likely. So, here\u2019s what you should do if the government subpoenas your business.<\/p>\n

Firstly, having a clear COVID plan and set of protocols<\/a> that you follow means you probably don\u2019t have to worry. The main reason for the subpoenas against Amazon is that their health plans and safety procedures, while present (and highly publicized, at that), aren\u2019t being maintained, enforced, or followed by supervisors\u2014at least, allegedly. These allegations come from employees with concerns about their own safety, so it\u2019s safe to say that California is taking them seriously.<\/p>\n

Moreover, listening to your employees and supporting them as needed–and ensuring that you have a record of doing so\u2014is a good way to keep the government at bay (that\u2019s good advice in general). If your employees see fit to complain to OSHA or the state regarding your safety protocols, you\u2019re clearly doing something wrong; listening to them up front and making changes as needed will help head off some nasty consequences, and your employees will be happier.<\/p>\n

Finally, it\u2019s important to check your COVID protocols and safety plan<\/a> to ensure that your documents are up to date. Ideally, you probably did what everyone else did in March\u2014listen to the CDC, draft a plan, hold employees accountable, and hand out free masks\u2014but guidelines have changed since then, and they\u2019re liable to continue doing so. Even without the fear of an audit or subpoena, routinely checking and updating your plan is a must.<\/p>\n

All of this may feel arbitrary or like you\u2019re jumping through hoops, but remember that you\u2019re doing that specifically to keep your employees safe and your business running. As long as you\u2019re approaching employee and customer safety with those aspects in mind, you should have no trouble passing an audit or subpoena with flying colors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(OPINION \/ EDITORIAL) Amazon is facing a subpoena for their COVID protocols. Are you next? Here’s what you can do to protect your workers and your business.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":337375,"featured_media":17007,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[254],"tags":[683,2125,2124,1927,253,1234],"class_list":["post-17006","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-editorials","tag-business","tag-business-protection","tag-covid-protocols","tag-covid-19","tag-editorial","tag-real-estate-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/12\/WomanCovidProtection.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17006","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/337375"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17006"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17006\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17014,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17006\/revisions\/17014"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17007"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}