Question: A remote employee told us they were injured at home during the workday. What are our responsibilities?

Answer: When an employee informs you that they were injured while working from home, take the claim seriously and follow your usual procedure for a workplace injury. Here are the steps we recommend.

• Thank them for letting you know about the injury and ask if they need medical attention. If necessary, help them get it. Their health and safety should be your first priority.
• Have the employee complete a workers’ compensation claim form, which can be obtained from your carrier. The carrier should be notified as soon as possible.
• Check for any recordkeeping or reporting requirements that you may be subject to under OSHA.
• Keep a copy of the employee’s claim form and any other supporting documentation.
• Talk to the employee about what happened to determine if there is a way you can help prevent this kind of injury in the future. For instance, if they tripped over a computer cord, maybe the cords can be bundled and arranged in a safer location.

Question: Can we store completed Forms 1-9 electronically?

Answer: Yes, you can store completed Forms I-9 electronically. However, per U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, any electronic storage system must include the following:

• Reasonable controls to ensure the system’s integrity, accuracy, and reliability. For instance, you would need to ensure that only authorized personnel have access to the records and have a backup plan to recover records in the event of information loss.
• Reasonable controls that prevent and detect any unauthorized or accidental changes. In practice, the system should create a secure and permanent record when an individual makes any changes, and this record should include the date of access, the identity of the person who accessed the electronic record, and the particular actions they took.
• An inspection and quality assurance program that regularly evaluates the system and includes periodic checks of electronically stored Forms I-9, including electronic signatures, if used. In other words, periodically verify that the storage system is working as intended.
• An indexing system that allows users to identify and retrieve records maintained in the system.
• The ability to reproduce legible and readable paper copies.

Question: Does the National Labor Relations Act apply to my business if we don’t have a union?

Answer: It does! Congress enacted the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) in 1935 to protect the rights of employees and employers, to encourage collective bargaining, and to limit certain labor and management practices that can harm the general welfare of workers, businesses, and the U.S. economy. Although a good portion of the NLRA deals with unionization, Section 7 of the act provides protections for all nonsupervisory employees, even those not involved with a union.

Specifically, Section 7 defines and protects concerted activity by employees. Concerted activity happens when employees act as a group (i.e., in concert) for their mutual aid or protection. That said, it’s easy for an individual employee to gain protection under the NLRA if they’re discussing the terms and conditions of their employment either physically around coworkers or in the same virtual space (e.g., on social media). The “terms and conditions of their employment” are just as broad as they sound. They include pay, benefits, treatment by management, dress codes, workplace policies, scheduling, and more.

The most common violation of Section 7, at least in non-unionized environments, happens when employers restrict or prohibit discussions of wages. If you have policies or practices that explicitly or implicitly forbid employees from talking about how much they’re paid, you should eliminate those policies immediately.

Many activities protected by Section 7 may seem like common sense to limit or prohibit (e.g., griping about management or discussing pay), so it’s important that all managers are trained on and understand the law. Unintentional violations that don’t stem from corporate policy can be just as costly as any other, so education is key.

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