Realtors and Stay At Home 2.0
Last Friday, Governor Sununu released a new “Stay at Home 2.0” Executive Order. The order applies to businesses that have been deemed essential and remained open, such as real estate, as well as those that are re-opening.
As part of the updated order, employers must develop a process for screening all employees reporting for work for COVID-19 related symptoms, including designating a “screener” to ask each employee questions about his or her health and to record employee temperatures before entering the office. NHAR interprets these requirements to apply to agents and employees utilizing a brokerage office.
Employers must reduce the risk to employees in the workplace by supporting the use of cloth face coverings in areas where social distancing is difficult to maintain (free cloth masks here), implement social distancing guidelines, and modify employee schedules, where possible, to reduce the number of physical interactions. Employers must amend or update their internal policies to include symptoms of COVID-19 or create a COVID-19 specific policy, while ensuring the privacy of all employees and agents. All employers must develop policies for worker protection and provide training to all staff prior to assigning cleaning tasks.
The full requirements for employers and employees can be found here. Every effort should be made to document office compliance activities.
For more information on issues pertaining to the impacts of coronavirus on the real estate industry, we encourage members to visit our dedicated webpage for the latest news and resources.