Extracted from:

Pandemic Planning Policy for Employers: Responding to the Coronavirus (COVID-19)

Employers should caution employees against personal travel to any country or region subject to a level 3 or 4 government travel health notice. Level 3 warns Canadians to avoid non-essential travel, and level 4 warns Canadians to to avoid all travel. Employers should also consider suspending business travel to such areas and requiring employees to leverage technology rather than face-to-face interactions to continue business. Under such travel restrictions, employees should be expected to provide advance notification if they intend to travel to any of those countries or regions.

Personal travel warnings or business travel suspensions should be based on public health information and government travel health notices, and updated as necessary to ensure they are current. In rapidly evolving and fluid situations, like the COVID-19 outbreak, this may require daily monitoring and updating. Based on current public health information about COVID-19, personal travel warnings and business travel suspensions to China, Iran, northern Italy, and Daegu city and Cheongdo county in South Korea may be appropriate. Travel to Japan and the rest of South Korea should be carefully considered as the situations there are rapidly evolving.

If business travel to an area subject to a travel health notice in unavoidable, employees should be made aware of the potential risks and best practices for their health and safety while travelling. Some employees may wish to decline such required travel based on the perceived risk. Employers should seek legal advice in relation to any work refusal, or when considering whether to restrict an employee from business travel because they may be at higher risk of illness.

In addition, employers should keep track of employees who are travelling abroad for business, and may wish to circulate health screening questionnaires for employees returning from travel. If an employee returns from a country with a high number of confirmed cases, but they are not themselves experiencing symptoms, the employer may consider exercising their policy to place the employee on leave.