3.5.1 Chronic Communicable Disease
adopted: Jan-2010
last revised: Jan-2010
Richland Community College is dedicated to promoting and maintaining a healthy environment for students and employees. The College places a high priority on the need to prevent the spread of communicable diseases on its campus. Communicable Diseases include those diseases and conditions which have been declared by the Center for Disease Control or the Illinois Department of Public Health to be contagious, infectious, or communicable, and may be dangerous to the public health. The College is committed to educating students, employees, and the community-at-large about chronic communicable diseases.
Employees with Communicable Diseases who know that they have a Communicable Disease have the obligation to inform the Director of Human Resources of their condition. Employees with identified communicable diseases shall retain their positions whenever, through reasonable accommodation of the employee’s physical condition and without undue hardship to the employer, there is no reasonable risk of transmission of the disease to others. Such employees shall remain subject to the Board’s employment policies, including but not limited to current collective bargaining agreements in effect, sick leave, physical examinations, temporary and permanent disability and termination.
Employment decisions will be made utilizing the general legal standard in conjunction with current, available public health department guidelines concerning the particular disease in question. Individual cases will not be prejudged. Decisions will be made based upon the facts of the particular case. The determination of an employee’s continued employment status will be made in accordance with procedures implemented by the College. The College shall respect the right to privacy of any employee who has a Communicable Disease. The employee’s medical condition shall be disclosed only to the extent necessary to minimize the health risks to the employee and others. The number of personnel aware of the employee’s medical condition will be kept at the minimum needed to detect situations in which the potential for transmission may increase. Persons deemed to have a “direct need to know” will be provided with the appropriate information; however, these persons shall not further disclose such information. The Director of Human Resources may establish additional rules and regulations designed to implement this policy.