If a subcontractor's employee contracts Covid 19 and the CDC guidance requires us to shut the job down for 7 days and sanitize what proof can the Owner require us to provide as proof of the impact. Concerned that we would need a doctor statement or proof that could potentially be a violation of privacy laws. How do we deal with this? We need to be able to prove the loss of time for a change order.
Take COVID out of it for a moment and think about an impact of some sort that shuts your job down. Proving that your job was shut down is fairly easy to do. However, proving the cause of your job being shut down is more difficult. In this case, you raised a good point about a privacy concern, but I would say you shouldn’t get that deep into it. As the contractor, you have an obligation for site, employee, worker safety and you’re obligated to make decisions that promote safety and are in the best interest of your workforce. So if you’ve made such a decision then it really ought not to be questioned unless you’ve done so for a purpose that is not in good faith.
Now with a COVID issue, it’s entirely reasonable that you would have to shut the job down and that you wouldn’t voluntarily shut the job down. I haven’t ever heard of a doctor’s note being required in order to prove entitlement to a shutdown. Now, whether you’re going to be entitled to time or money, regardless of the reason is the question you need to look at your contract for. But certainly proving impact for a shutdown of a week seems to be a fairly low bar.