Turkey, Stuffing, and Covid: Holiday Plans Meet Job Restrictions

As the holiday season approaches and the pandemic rages on, workers’ plans to travel and gather with family to celebrate could be their companies’ business, too.

Employers generally have the legal latitude to ask workers about their holiday plans, mandate quarantining if there’s a chance they were exposed to the coronavirus, and even forbid them to travel or attend certain events, attorneys said.

“Terminating an employee because they traveled during Thanksgiving during the pandemic seems quite draconian,” said Michael Elkins, founder of the management-side firm MLE Law. “Could they take these draconian measures? Yes they could.”

The Thanksgiving holiday is ...