MACON, Ga. — 13WMAZ has been getting questions about whether or not businesses can be held responsible if an employee contracts COVID-19.
This week, a viewer sent us a picture of a sign on the front door of a Warner Robins business.
It says under Georgia law, there is no liability for the injury or death of anyone entering the business if they contract COVID-19 on the property.
Our viewer asked, "Is this true? We do not have a choice to not come to work. If you are exposed to COVID-19, you are told you can come to work and to wear a mask."
Our sources are Grant Greenwood, a Macon Business and Commercial Litigation Lawyer and the Georgia COVID-19 Pandemic Business Safety Act signed by Governor Brian Kemp two weeks ago.
The wording of that sign comes from Senate Bill 359, which was signed into law by Kemp this summer.
Greenwood says the law essentially protects businesses.
"Except in cases of gross negligence, willful misconduct, intentional infliction of harm, it protects liability of business owners from people coming into the business who may assert a COVID-19 liability claim," he said.
He says that it is not illegal for a business to post the sign -- in fact, he recommends it for protection purposes.
So we can verify, no, employers are not liable if you get sick and contract COVID-19 within their business, unless the business doesn't take normal precautions.
Greenwood says there is no real history of dealing with a pandemic like this, so it is difficult to forecast how the law will come down.