We are required to quarantine for 5-10 days but they don’t offer sick leave. I can’t be without pay for two weeks, I have bills to pay. There are many others out sick like me. This is a big medical company based in Texas and they can’t offer some kind of pay?
JA:
You might be able to report it as a workplace injury. Texas treats COVID as a presumed non-work injury, but if you can demonstrate that your workplace has a higher than average exposure to COVID, then you may be able to get approved for Worker’s Compensation that would cover lost wages and medical expenses.
Given you say you work in a COVID testing role, I would say you have a better chance than most in convincing the worker’s compensation insurance that you have a greater than average exposure to COVID.
Unless you can prove you got covid due to a work-related reason (i.e. from testing the children), it's generally unpaid at this point. If you can prove that, it might (or might not) fall under a worker's compensation, but even then, there's usually a 7 day waiting period before lost wages kick in.