Food and Pharmacy Critical Worker Credentials

As we notified our members yesterday, Utah Governor Gary Herbert announced an order encouraging all Utah citizens to stay at home. Since his announcement Salt Lake City Mayor, Erin Mendenhall issued a fifth city order, in essence, making the provisions of the governor's order mandatory. We anticipate that other cities and counties in Utah may also take unique approaches to addressing the COVID-19 crisis.

With any order that is issued, it is going to be important to maintain critical infrastructure industries. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security issued guidance around which industries and workers qualify as "Essential Critical Infrastructure". On page six of this document under the "Food and Agriculture" category the first bullet point identifies "w]orkers supporting groceries, pharmacies and other retail that sells food and beverage products" as essential workers. This includes all retail, wholesale and supplier employees.

While there are no specific credentials that an employee is required to carry, in consultation with Utah's Department of Public Safety, we are providing a form letter that designates your employees as critical infrastructure workers. This letter should be individualized and customized for your company and workers. Employees should carry this letter with them when they are traveling for work purposes. In the event they are questioned by law enforcement they can produce the letter, a company ID (a name badge will work) and a state issued ID.

In the event that any of your employees run into any pushback from law enforcement please contact Dave Davis, President of the association. Dave can help you coordinate with government and law enforcement officials. Thank you for the heroic efforts your companies and employees continue to make in the face of this COVID-19 pandemic.

Please click on the buttons below to download the documents discussed in this communication.