Governor Murphy Issues Executive Order Creating Mandatory Health and Safety Requirements at Businesses
Governor Murphy’s Executive Order 192, issued on October 28, 2020 (the “Order”), requires every business, nonprofit, and governmental or educational entity in the State “that requires or permits its workforce…to be physically present at a worksite” to follow a uniform set of public health measures to slow the spread of COVID-19. The Order becomes effective at 6:00 a.m. on November 5, 2020. The Order mandates ten specific actions that businesses must take: Enable employees to remain at least six feet apart at all times. When employees cannot maintain this distance, businesses must require employees to wear face masks and shall install physical barriers between workstations wherever possible. Require that employees, customers, visitors, and other people entering the worksite wear cloth or disposable face masks while on the premises, in accordance with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommendations. The only exceptions to this directive are for individuals under two years of age or where it is impracticable for a person to wear a face mask, such as when the individual is eating or drinking or where a service being provided by the employer cannot be performed on someone wearing a mask. Businesses must make face masks available, at the businesses’ expense, to their employees. Businesses may permit employees to remove face masks when the...