State and local governments across the U.S. are issuing mandatory shutdown orders, “shelter-in-place” orders, and related interpretive guidance—all designed to immediately restrict the congregation and movement of people during the COVID-19 pandemic. These orders vary in substance and specific restrictions, but most exclude from the restrictions “life-sustaining” or “essential businesses” that may keep their brick-and-mortar offices open. Nonessential businesses must close their offices and may engage in remote work.

Many staffing firms provide temporary and contract workers to essential or life-sustaining businesses such as hospitals, pharmacies, and warehouses. Some state orders simply refer to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Guidance, issued by DHS’ Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency on March 19, which identifies workers who should be considered essential to critical infrastructure across many industry sectors. Other orders do not explicitly allow for companies servicing essential businesses to remain open and either omit staffing from their lists of essential businesses or denote employment-related services as nonessential.

Some orders allow businesses that supply essential businesses with essential services to remain open, and ASA believes that a strong argument can be made that staffing firms providing workers to such business provide essential services—and thus should be allowed to keep their offices open and staff them to the extent necessary to provide those services.

To prepare for a natural or manmade disaster, companies—including staffing firms—should have continuity plans to assist in the continuance of their essential functions. Staffing firms’ continuity plans must also take into account the operation of client sites to which temporary workers are assigned.

To help staffing firms prepare, Seyfarth has developed a sample Pandemic/Public Health Emergency Business Continuity Plan.

The document is one of several new resources available at americanstaffing.net/covid-19, the association’s COVID-19 microsite. The page is continuously being updated with tools staffing companies can use to address the safety of their workforces and find reliable information about the coronavirus.