The COVID Project
The record
- Jurisdiction
- South Dakota
- Level
- State
- Authority
- S.D. Codified Laws title 60 (Labor and Employment), ch. 60-2 (Obligations of Employer and Employee)
- Issued
- 2026-09-29 Sept. 29, 2026
- Effective
- standing (read as 2026-09-29)
- End
- standing
- In force
- Standing since Sept. 29, 2026 (a statutory duty; in force throughout the six quarters)
- Quarters
- 2020 Q22020 Q32020 Q42021 Q12021 Q22021 Q3
2020 Q22020 Q32020 Q42021 Q12021 Q22021 Q3
- Limitation types
- Workplace rulesStanding duty
- Addressees
- Character
- workplace duty
- Collection
- Standing duties: South Dakota DUT-SD
Operative words
An employer shall in all cases indemnify an employee for losses caused by the employer's want of ordinary care.
Penalty
Civil indemnity to the employee; read with SDCL 20-9-1 (Ex. DUT-SD-011) and, for exposure claims from Jan. 1, 2020, the intent-based bar of SDCL 21-68-2 and -3 (Ex. DUT-SD-013)
What it required
Every South Dakota employer owes every employee ordinary care and must make good 'in all cases' the losses its want of ordinary care causes (60-2-3), a standing civil duty whose content in 2020 and 2021 was fixed by the governmental directives on distancing, sanitation, screening and exclusion of the ill that defined what care was ordinary in a workplace during the pandemic.
Retrieval noteSouth Dakota has no State occupational safety and health act for private employers and no OSHA State plan; chapter 60-11 (Wages, Hours and Conditions of Employment) contains no general safety duty (read in full on 2026-09-29). The statutory workplace-safety duty is federal (Ex. DUT-SD-012); HB 1046 § 6(3) provides that 'COVID-19 is not an occupational disease under state law' (Ex. DUT-SD-013).