Alaska businesses win big and are now protected from unnecessary litigation regarding COVID-19. Alaska Policy Forum is proud to have been part of making this happen after our local businesses endured months of hardship, closures, and capacity limits. APF spent the past several months releasing op-eds, videos of impacted business owners, and educating policymakers to convey the importance of this issue for re-starting Alaska’s economy. We were pleased to partner with National Federation of Independent Business for these efforts.
Government mandates and public health guidelines informed customers, employees, and business owners on the proper safety precautions to prevent them from contracting COVID-19. However, employers were still unsure as to how they would be protected from costly, unnecessary lawsuits from customers or employees who claimed to contract COVID-19 on the business’s premise.
Thanks to actions by the Alaska Legislature and Governor Dunleavy, businesses following health guidelines and mandates no longer have to work under the threat of virus-related litigation, which is retroactive to March of 2020. The Great Land joins more than a dozen states that already enacted COVID-19 business liability protections. This policy is a big win for businesses and Alaskans by bringing stability to our local economies, and Alaska Policy Forum is proud to be part of it.