How Coronavirus And An Obscure State Law Could Pave The Way For Telecommuting Rights

Ask the average person to rattle off a list of groups protected from employment discrimination, and their responses tend to fall off a cliff after race, religion, and gender. But Title VII’s protections actually extend quite a bit further, and even more so at the state level. One such extension exists in Texas under Labor Code Section 22.002 — the right to evacuate in the event of a declared state of disaster:

An employer may not discharge or in any other manner discriminate against an employee who leaves the employee’s place of employment to participate in a general public evacuation ordered under an emergency evacuation order.

Okay, nifty. But weren’t we supposed to be talking about Coronavirus and telecommuting? Why is this law relevant to the topics at hand? For that, we should dive a bit further into the legalese.

Can a virus — or even the threat of it — qualify as a relevant disaster? Yes. Per Texas Law Enforcement Code, Chapter 418:

“Disaster” means the occurrence or imminent threat of widespread or severe damage, injury, or loss of life or property resulting from any natural or man-made cause, including… epidemic, air contamination…