Oct 6, 2009

Small Businesses Prepare for a Hit from the H1N1 FluBy Coeli CarrTime.com

Small businesses already hit hard by the recession may soon undergo another pummeling, this time by the 2009 H1N1 virus, the frightening new subtype of a strain that’s been around for decades.

“Right now the bulk of smaller businesses haven’t prepared,” says Howard A. Mavity, a labor lawyer who heads up the workplace safety and catastrophe management practice group at Fisher & Phillips, in Atlanta.

Overall, however, interest in how best to address a viral onslaught is intense, says Mavity, noting that inquiries from businesses of all sizes about his firm’s free webinars on workplace-related H1N1 topics have increased “tenfold” since the summer.

Why then have so few small to midsize companies executed a blueprint for action?

The overall excuse that Mavity hears from companies that have yet to draft their emergency plans tends to be lack of time. But other issues have added to the turmoil.

Many small businesses have cut back their staff to the minimum, so they are without the extra workers needed to plan for contingencies.

But small businesses are also more vulnerable than large companies precisely because they work with a light staff — lose two workers to the flu and a shop’s workforce can be cut in half for a week or more. And, says Mavity, even if a company had the foresight to buy insurance in the event that a catastrophe disrupted the business, policies are often so narrowly construed that they probably would not offer protection against a flu pandemic.

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