Northern Virginia Technology Council Supports Legislation Protecting Technology Businesses from COVID-19 Lawsuits

MCLEAN, Va., Oct. 2, 2020 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- The Northern Virginia Technology Council (NVTC), the membership and trade association for the technology community in Northern Virginia and one of the largest technology councils in the nation, today voiced its support for new legislation, the SAFE TO WORK Act (S. 4317), that protects business owners from COVID litigation as they begin to reopen.

"Liability exposure protections are critically important for responsible business owners as they continue to reopen and restart economic activities," said Jennifer Taylor, president and CEO of NVTC. "Without targeted protections, there is the potential to hinder America's economic recovery and require employers to devote scarce resources responding to baseless legal claims rather than investing in needed business operations," continued Taylor.

NVTC determined that an effective COVID-19 liability measure must meet a number of principles:

• It must be temporary and targeted;
• It must protect responsible businesses, and not reward bad actors; and
• It must reference duty of care best practices that offer clear guidance to businesses and safeguard customers and employees.

NVTC believes the SAFE TO WORK Act introduced by Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) meets these principles as the bill creates a safe harbor for businesses, along with an exclusive federal cause of action for COVID-19 exposure claims. At the same time, the bill excludes businesses that engage in gross negligence or willful misconduct and requires that businesses make reasonable efforts to comply with applicable government health guidance.

We join our colleagues at the Consumer Technology Association (CTA) in urging the Congress to quickly enact the SAFE TO WORK Act's temporary and reasonable liability protections that will allow Virginia to get back to business.

For additional information please read NVTC's Guiding Principles for COVID -19 Duty of Care Best Practices.

About the Northern Virginia Technology Council
The Northern Virginia Technology Council (NVTC) is the membership and trade association for the technology community in Northern Virginia. As one of the largest technology councils in the nation, NVTC serves about 800 companies from all sectors of the technology industry, as well as service providers, universities, foreign embassies, nonprofit organizations, and governmental agencies. Through its member companies, NVTC represents about 350,000 employees in the region. NVTC is recognized as the nation's leader in providing its technology community with networking and educational events; specialized services and benefits; public policy advocacy; branding of its region as a major global technology center; initiatives in targeted business sectors and in the international, entrepreneurship, workforce and education arenas; and the NVTC Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit charity that supports the NVTC Veterans Employment Initiative and other priorities within Virginia's technology community. Visit NVTC at http://www.nvtc.org.

SOURCE NVTC