COVID-19 in the Workplace Response Guidance

Guidance updated January 12, 2023.

The City of Madison strives to treat all employees fairly and equitably in all aspects of their employment. The COVID-19 pandemic presents many difficulties for us all personally and in our collective employment. It is important to remember that equity does not mean equal. All City of Madison employees cannot be treated in the same way as the nature of the jobs we all do are different. Employee support will be based on the individual employee’s position and nature of the work performed. The following is meant to be a guide for both employees and supervisors.

Guidance

  1. When employees have knowledge that they have tested positive for COVID-19, they are required to inform their immediate Manager/ Supervisor.  Managers and Supervisors must maintain the employee’s confidentiality and not disclose the employee’s identity to others.
  2. If employees self-disclose that they have tested positive to co-workers, the employee should not have expectations of confidentiality.

COVID-19 Vaccinated Employee Guidance

Please find all Vaccinated Employee Guidance here.

What to Do if You are Sick or Possibly Exposed

Please refer to the What to Do if You are Sick or Possibly Exposed Public Health page for guidance on COVID-19 in the workplace scenarios. 

Definitions

Type of Leave - Employees who can perform their job from home, may do so.  Those who cannot must use the leave types listed.
 
  • EPL - Emergency Paid Leave (40 hours) provided to all employees for COVID related issues.  
  • Paid Administrative Leave - Is only available for a maximum of seven (7) days when an employee has had a necessary work exposure. Paid administrative leave is only available when close contact* occurred in the workplace and was necessitated by the nature of the assigned work as determined by the supervisor. In this instance if employee has test on day 6 and provides documentation of negative results, employee will be paid administrative leave up to the day the test result was received by the employee, not to exceed 7 calendar days.

If employee does not get tested or does not submit test results to supervisor, employee shall use any form of accrued paid leave to cover all time off.

If employee has test on Day 6 or 7 and provides documentation of positive results, employee will be paid administrative leave up to the day the test result was received by the employee, not to exceed 7 calendar days.  All time off that occurs after administrative leave shall be EPL or accrued paid leave.

Necessary work exposure - An employee had a necessary work exposure if the  close contact*  they had with another employee was a required function of their job that could not have been avoided with proper following of personal protective equipment (PPE), social distancing and face covering guidelines.
 
Close contact* - as defined by Public Health Madison & Dane County (PHMDC):
  • Someone who was within 6 feet of a COVID-19 positive person (regardless of wearing a mask or other PPE) for at least 15 cumulative minutes or more over a 24-hour period (Updated December 11, 2020 at 10:00am publichealthmdc.com/coronavirus)
  • Keep in mind the minutes of close contact* add up; being within six feet for three, 5-minute periods would make someone a close contact*.
  • Can occur starting 2 days before positive test or illness onset, whichever occurred first.
Official Sources
For the most up to date guidance please refer to:
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidance
Public Health Madison & Dane County (PHMDC) guidance