NC state employees to return to in-person work. Here are details of when and how.
North Carolina’s thousands of state employees are starting to return to working in person — if they haven’t gone back already.
More than half of the state’s adults have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, and Gov. Roy Cooper lifted nearly all COVID-19 restrictions May 14.
A majority of state workers already have been working in person the past year. Soon, others will join them, at least in some capacity.
As of last week, 66.4% of state employees were working on site, 21% of state employees were full-time teleworking and 12.5% were doing a mix of on-site and remote work, said Jill Warren Lucas, spokesperson for the Office of State Human Resources.
Lucas said some state employees have already transitioned back from remote work, and they expect more will follow soon.
“With conditions improving statewide, largely due the number of people who have been vaccinated and the increased availability of vaccine, it is time for state employees who have been teleworking to begin to transition back to their usual duty station,” Lucas told The News & Observer.
Barbara Gibson, director of the Office of State Human Resources, sent out a letter this week to the human resources department heads of state agencies and the university system to address when in-office work will resume and the safety protocols that will be in place.
Here’s what those state employees need to know.
Returning to the workplace
Gibson also wrote a letter to all state employees on Friday about returning to the workplace.
“State agencies are encouraged to bring back more employees who are ready to return to onsite work, while also providing flexibility for employees who may need to continue to work remotely,” Gibson wrote.
She urged workers to talk to their supervisors about specifics for their job sites.
“If you have already been vaccinated, thank you. By getting vaccinated, you are helping protect yourself, your family and friends, your coworkers, and your entire community,” Gibson wrote.
Lucas said state agencies have flexibility to determine exactly when employees will return to in-person work. They may also decide which jobs must be based in-person on site, and which jobs could be eligible for remote working in the future.
“A majority of state employees have worked onsite throughout the pandemic, especially at correctional facilities and state hospitals and in positions where the required work cannot be done offsite due to security issues, lack of necessary equipment or the ability to provide public-facing services,” she said.
Wearing a mask at work
State employees who are not vaccinated are supposed to wear masks at work when they are indoors and within six feet of other people. The letter says it is “recommended” for unvaccinated workers, but does not say required.
Employees who wish to continue wearing face coverings at work are welcome to do so, the department said. There should not be anyone restricting employees or customers from wearing masks if they want, according to the letter.
State employees in the following locations are required to wear a mask, regardless of vaccination status:
▪ Jails and prisons;
▪ Buildings serving the homeless;
▪ Public transportation like airports, bus stations, bus stops, train stations and train stops;
▪ Health care settings, including hospitals, outpatient health care, long-term care, skilled nursing and intermediate care for people with intellectual disabilities; and
▪ Childcare facilities, day camps and overnight camps for children as well as schools.
There is some flexibility for other work settings where masks are not required. The heads of state agencies are allowed to require masks for employees or visitors in certain situations or settings.
Also, supervisors can propose face coverings in certain situations if they see a need after evaluating working conditions.
State employees of the executive branch cabinet agencies stopped being required to wear masks as of May 20, unless in the listed required settings or required by the head of their agency.
Other workplaces
The N.C. Department of Health and Human Services released recommendations for employees at public facing businesses on May 20. It recommends masks for employees and other visitors who are not fully vaccinated unless they are outside or six feet apart.
Guidelines include encouraging sick leave policies, for staff to self-monitor for symptoms and increase circulation of outdoor air as much as possible. It also urges employers not to require negative COVID-19 tests to return to work, but to follow guidance to stay out from work for 10 days after a positive test if the person does not become sick.
Earlier this week, Cooper and N.C. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Dr. Mandy Cohen spoke briefly about masks and vaccinations.
“The research is pretty clear and the [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] has said definitively that if you’re vaccinated, there’s very little chance of you getting COVID-19 and very little chance that you’re going to transmit it to somebody else,” Cooper told reporters on Wednesday.
“We are going to continue to put our priority work on getting people vaccinated,” he said. “Because if anything comes out of all this talk about masks and social distancing and capacity limits is that vaccinations are the way out for people.”
“If you are vaccinated, you do not need to be wearing a mask,” Cohen added, except for the settings mandated in places with large groups of unvaccinated people, like schools.
In a separate event on Monday, Cooper told reporters that his administration has left it to private businesses to make their own decisions about what they should do regarding workplace restrictions.
You can find a North Carolina location for vaccinations here: myspot.nc.gov.
For more North Carolina government and politics news, listen to the Under the Dome politics podcast from The News & Observer and the NC Insider. You can find it on Pandora, Spotify. Apple Podcasts. Stitcher. iHeartRadio. Amazon Music, Megaphone or wherever you get your podcasts.
This story was originally published May 21, 2021 at 3:30 PM.