President Joe Biden calls on the Department of Labor to make this clear: workers have the right to refuse a job that endangers their health, without sacrificing unemployment benefits.
The issue presents itself differently state by state, with millions of Americans facing the choice to work on the front line of a mortal. pandemic or losing their ability to put food on the table.
Amid a series of executive orders signed by Mr Biden during his first 48 hours in office, the president on Friday addressed the Department of Labor clarifying that “workers have a guaranteed federal right to refuse a job that puts them in their health is in danger and if they do, they will still be able to obtain unemployment insurance. “
In announcing the order, the White House cited a 2019 Gallup survey in which 43% of U.S. households reported having at least one member with pre-existing conditions that left them more vulnerable to serious illness or death. in case of contracting COVID-19. “President Biden believes that workers should have the right to safe work environments and that no one should choose between their livelihood and the health of themselves or their families,” the White House said.
Many of the affected workers are among the lowest paid, including those working in residences for the elderly, meat processing plants i grocery stores, for whom going to work during a pandemic can be a terrifying experience for which few signed up. As Michelle González, a nurse in the intensive care unit at Montefiore Medical Center in New York, in the Bronx, told CBS MoneyWatch. at the end of March: “I have family members who are elderly at home, so that puts my family at risk.”
Instead of setting a national standard, the Trump administration left it up to states to interpret the rules, according to Andrew Stettner, an unemployment expert and senior member of the Century Foundation, a think tank in New York City. .
In Iowa, for example, the rules were quickly determined in favor of companies that needed labor. “If you’re an employer and you offer to get your employee back to work and they decide not to, that’s a voluntary resignation,” Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, a Republican, said in April. “Therefore, they would not be eligible for unemployment money.”
Security fears end in disaffection
Limited options have been played on groundbreaking ways, with a daughter who spoke after the death of her father from COVID-19 just a month after he returned to his job as a security guard in Chandler, Arizona. “My dad called me on May 16 for fear of his safety,” Lina Washington said he tweeted in mid-June. “He said no one distanced themselves socially and few wore masks.”
His father, Robert Washington, 68, had diabetes and was recovering from prostate cancer, conditions that made him vulnerable to infection. But he chose to return when the casino that occupied him reopened, as he needed medical benefits and a salary to cover the cost of insulin, rent and life insurance, he said. Her father’s other options were to take an unpaid outing or quit.
“It’s a big problem” affecting hundreds of thousands of workers, Stettner said. As of the second quarter of 2020, some 500,000 applications for unemployment benefits were denied by states, but it is unclear how many of the cases were related to COVID-19, he said.
“The issue on which this executive order is formed is the increase of 40 million people who received unemployment benefits after the pandemic,” Stettner said. The usual rule that looking for work to receive unemployment benefits had basically been suspended, as it was not a safe time to work, especially if you had been employed in a high-risk job, explain.
Emergency standard never set by DOL
All states require basic safety and health as a working condition, but guidelines from disease control centers on working conditions during the pandemic were published and then terminated, and the Department of Labor never published a rule of thumb. emergency dealing with COVID-19, Stettner recalled.
“Then people were called back or offered jobs, so there was no guidance on that issue. It was really up to the states to determine what that means,” Stettner said. Now, he added, “the president is saying, ‘we need to figure out a policy on that.’
Biden’s order comes a day after another order directing the Department of Labor to review workers ’safety and health guidelines within two weeks.