Ohio has a website that lets employers do what?

Beginning May 4, Ohio has started allowing many businesses to reopen after being shuttered in March to prevent the spread of COVID-19. But that doesn’t mean that all of the employees of those businesses are ready to return to work — many have continued to shelter in place for fear of catching and/or spreading the disease, and many of their employers aren’t happy about it.

That’s why the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services just stood up a website where said employers can report said employees. The agency has also come up with a new term to describe when an employee refuses to come to work during the pandemic: “Covid-19 Fraud.” Gizmodo reports that, as of May 8, 1,800 employers had turned in roughly 3,000 employees through the site.

Those employees can now potentially lose their unemployment benefits, since they have decided to, as the website puts it, “quit or refuse work when it is available due to COVID-19.” According to Kimberly Hall, director of the Department of Job and Family Services, “It’s a case-by-case basis, but if you’re just saying ‘I’m afraid of the virus,’ that would not be sufficient.”