By Christopher Robins and Sydney Pereira
A worker delivers Amazon packages in front of Lenox Hill Hospital during the Coronavirus pandemic.
The New York City Council (click here) introduced an "Essential Workers' Bill of Rights" on Wednesday afternoon, which would require large employers to provide additional protections and hazard pay to those hourly workers helping the city continue to operate during the COVID-19 pandemic. The bill of rights is part of a sweeping package of legislation intended to help New Yorkers where the state and federal government have failed.
One bill would prohibit all evictions, debt collections, and property seizures until April 2021. Another would require the city to provide single-room shelters to all homeless New Yorkers who need it to maintain proper social distancing, and would effectively shut down many of the crowded shelters currently operated by the city....
Workers complaints and protests are based in real issues in "Safety at Work." Working conditions matter and no employer should try to brush aside such concerns to attempt to silence workers just trying to be heard for a real solution.
April 18, 2020
By Caroline O'Donovan
Federal labor regulators (click here) have indicated they will be watching Amazon after workers in Chicago filed charges against the company alleging it retaliated against them for participating in protests about working conditions during the coronavirus pandemic, according to public documents filed this week.
The labor board’s inquiry, which experts say is unusual, comes as Amazon is under national scrutiny for firing at least four employees who engaged in walkouts and work slowdowns to protest worker safety during the pandemic.
Employees in Chicago allege that instead of responding to their petition asking for the closure of their warehouse after two workers tested positive for the coronavirus, Amazon instead retaliated against them. The company, they charged, is going after labor leaders on the pretext that they violated new social distancing rules. Workers in other places, including New York and Minnesota, have accused the company of similar tactics in recent weeks....
And what exactly has Secretary Scalia done during this health crisis to benefit those working on the front lines of the COVID-19 crisis?
No surprise here, while the entire country is paying attention to the healthcare crisis, Trump's cabinet is busy deregulating the country and circumventing courts of law. In the case of Secretary Scalia, he is circumventing the Administrative Law Judges. I do believe this outrageous action by Scalia is unconstitutional. I just don't see anyone circumventing courts of law.
So, Scalia wasn't interested in distressed workers and the danger they were facing in violation of OSHA regulations. OSHA still has regulations, right?
On March 6, 2020, (click here) U.S. Secretary of Labor Eugene Scalia published Secretary’s Order 01-2020, which is among the first of his management decisions since his confirmation back in September. The Order, titled the “Delegation of Authority and Assignment of Responsibility to the Administrative Review Board,” establishes the Secretary’s authority to review, at his discretion, decisions of the Department of Labor (DOL)’s Administrative Review Board (ARB), including decisions arising out of enforcement actions brought by the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP). The Order represents a shift in procedure before the Office of Administrative Law Judges (OALJ) and introduces various new process and substantive legal questions to be aware of in connection with contractor pay discrimination enforcement actions....
