Reopening to Require Significant Adjustments to Ensure Worker Safety

As US states begin to ease their shelter-in-place and lockdown orders, we are fast realizing, like other countries, that shutting down normal operations is much simpler than restarting them. Unlike sheltering in place, a return to public life is going to require significant resources and policies in place to curb potential for future outbreaks and ensure that workers and the public are safe when they go out. Public health experts agree that a robust testing and contact-tracing program must be in place before people can be safe going out. But what about workers? 

Besides elderly populations, those whose work has been deemed essential have been at a significantly higher risk for contracting coronavirus. This includes not just health care workers in senior living facilities and ERs, but transportation workers, delivery people, meat processors, and warehouse employees. And the evidence to date suggests that the federal government and private employers have not excelled at ensuring workers have the public health protections they need. 

Sounding the alarm last week, Richard Trumka, head of the AFL-CIO, the largest organized labor federation in the US, hit out at the US secretary of labor, accusing the department, which includes OSHA, of mishandling the response to Covid-19. He alleged that the department and OSHA “failed to meet their obligation and duty to protect workers; the government’s response has been delinquent, delayed, disorganized, chaotic and totally inadequate.”

In response to the disorganization, many warehouse and delivery workers have organized walkouts, sickouts, and other actions to highlight the dangerous working conditions and lack of oversight. Even executives, such as Amazon VP and senior software engineer Tim Bray, have resigned over the failure to ensure worker safety.

Going forward then, we need to learn from the failures to protect essential workers if we are to ensure the health and safety of all workers, as well as to ensure each worker’s rights. Law360 recently outlined some essential things employers need to consider before reopening their businesses or offices. Among their recommendations and cautions are:

• Being aware of possible bias in hiring or rehiring practices, whether it is discriminating against older workers or those who have not tested positive for coronavirus;
• Not forcing employees to return prematurely;
• Ensuring that offices or businesses engage in proper health screening practices and can provide public health supplies, such as hand-washing stations and sanitizer;
• Being cognizant that many employees may have life obligations, such as childcare or elderly care that conflict with work and accommodating them appropriately.

Experts foresee significant practical and legal obstacles in the coming weeks and months, and we will strive to keep you up to date as the employment landscape in the post-pandemic world continues to change.