Mayor of Los Angeles’ new order requires that certain businesses’ employees wear masks, and allows those businesses to refuse service to those without masks

COVID-19 TASK FORCE ALERT

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The Mayor of Los Angeles issued a further emergency order on April 7, 2020, regarding the COVID-19 pandemic directed at certain essential businesses, which more likely than not effects some, if not all vehicle service operations. Retail businesses, restaurants, and delivery businesses that are deemed essential are among the effected businesses as well. Businesses subject to the order now have additional requirements for providing masks, hand washing, and social distancing and may refuse service to customers not wearing masks. The new requirements take effect this Friday, April 10, 2020.

Businesses such as “rental car companies” and “other private transportation services providing transportation services necessary for essential activities” are included in the Mayor’s order, but auto parts and service operations are not included in this order. 

If you transport people to and from your business, provide service vehicle loaners, or have rental car operations, you will be within the scope of this order. If the services you provide within the scope of the Mayor’s order are so separate they are arguably a separate business, you must at a minimum have employees involved in those operations complying with the new regulations. A sufficiently separate operation would be having a branded rental car counter within a dealership, that operates from a discreet portion of the facility, whose vehicle fleet is discreet from the service loaners provided by the dealership, and whose vehicle fleet is not prepped and cleaned by employees of the dealership. That said, to give all of your employees peace of mind, it makes the most sense to comply with the new requirements across all of your operations. It is unlikely that a service loaner program would be discreet, as those vehicles are owned by the dealership, provided by dealership employees, and prepped by dealership employees. Similar analysis would apply to a dealership shuttle.

The Mayor’s order requires the following:

  1. All employees must wear “face coverings over their noses and mouths while performing their work.” The face coverings must be fabric coverings, such as scarves and bandanas, not N-95 masks or other medical grade masks.
  2. The face masks worn by employees must be washed once a day, or if single use masks, they must be discarded in a trash receptacle.
  3. The employer must provide the non-medical grade face covering at its own expense.
  4. The employer must allow employees to wash their hands at least once every 30 minutes, and must ensure access to a restroom facility stocked with necessary cleansing or sanitation products to observe the hand sanitation protocols recommended by the Los Angeles Department of Public Health
  5. The employer must “implement social distancing measures for customers, visitors, and employees that provides a six-foot buffer, to the extent possible, between individuals.”
  6. All customers and visitors to the business must also wear non-medical grade face coverings, and the business may refuse service to those that do not.

If you have any questions about the application of the Mayor’s Order to your operations, please contact us or another competent dealer attorney.