Takeaways

Employees of certain categories of essential businesses must wear face masks or face coverings.
Employers must provide face masks or face coverings to employees or reimburse them for the costs of the same.
Essential businesses may refuse service to anyone who fails to wear a face mask or face covering.

On April 7, the City of Los Angeles issued a Worker Protection Order (WPO) as a follow-up to the city’s March 19 Safer at Home Order. Based on the outsized risk of exposure to the COVID-19 virus faced by many workers of essential businesses, the WPO states that each employee of the following types of essential businesses must wear a face mask or face covering:

  • Grocery stores, supermarkets, convenience stores, warehouse stores, farmers markets and other businesses that sell food;
  • Restaurants and retail food facilities that offer food to individuals via delivery, drive-thru or for pick up;
  • Individuals and businesses that deliver groceries, food and beverages directly to residences or businesses;
  • Businesses and organizations that provide food, social services and other necessities of life to economically needy or otherwise disadvantaged individuals;
  • Hardware and building supply stores and nurseries;
  • Taxies, ride sharing services, car rental companies and private transportation services;
  • Hotels and motels;
  • Plumbers, electricians, janitorial workers, handyman services, landscapers and gardeners; and
  • Laundromats and drycleaners.

The WPO becomes effective on April 10. To facilitate compliance, the WPO requires these essential businesses to provide, at their expense, face masks or face coverings to employees. Employers must also allow employees to wash their hands at least every 30 minutes and social distancing protocols remain intact. Businesses are encouraged, but not required, to install plexiglass between cashiers and customers.

Patrons of these essential businesses also bear responsibility to assist the city in its efforts to reduce the spread of COVID-19. Specifically, the WPO states that all customers and visitors to these businesses must wear face coverings to provide additional protection for employees and customers alike. Businesses may refuse service to anyone not wearing a face covering. Businesses may sell face coverings, presumably to patrons who do not have them, but cannot engage in price-gouging.

Owners and operators of essential businesses must strictly comply with the WPO. Failure to comply constitutes a misdemeanor subject to fines and imprisonment. The WPO will be enforced by the Los Angeles Police Department and the City Attorney.

The WPO has resounding implications for both businesses and individuals. For example, warehouses and big-box stores like Costco, Walmart and Target must provide face coverings for hundreds of employees and are faced with enforcing the face covering requirement of potentially thousands of customers each day. A person cannot jump into a taxi, or an Uber or Lyft ride, without a face covering. Taken literally, the WPO requires individuals staying at hotels to wear face coverings at all times except when they are in their rooms. And persons ordering food from GrubHub or Door Dash must don a face covering in order to receive their food. Similarly, a person cannot grab a bite to eat through a McDonald’s drive-thru if he or she is not wearing a face covering.

Businesses must ensure they are aware of and comply with all orders related to COVID-19, at the state, county and city level. For more information, please reach out to your regular Pillsbury contact or the authors of this client alert.


Pillsbury’s experienced crisis management professionals are closely monitoring the global threat of COVID-19, drawing on the firm’s capabilities in supply chain management, insurance law, cybersecurity, employment law, corporate law and other areas to provide critical guidance to clients in an urgent and quickly evolving situation. For more thought leadership on this rapidly developing topic, please visit our COVID-19 (Coronavirus) Resource Center.

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