Kelli Trent, an insurance claim agent in Perry County, said her employer isn’t following health and safety COVID-19 guidelines.
The corporation isn’t enforcing a mask policy or social distancing as some workers are returning to the office, she said. Now, four employees have tested positive for the coronavirus and nine others are in quarantine.
Trent also said the company is mandating employees report to work unless they show symptoms — even if they were exposed.
She said she filed a complaint with the state Department of Health, who then referred Trent to the governor’s office. She was then sent to the state police and finally to the local police.
“The local police said they couldn’t help us,” Trent said.
Trent was one of seven Pennsylvania essential workers that testified virtually before the House Democratic Policy Committee on Monday about the impacts of the pandemic they are facing in their fields. Many spoke of the shortage of personal protective equipment provided by their employers and the need for hazard pay and paid sick leave as they continue their work.
And the impacts are often disproportionately felt by minority workers.
“It is a health crisis hitting brown and black people,” said Dalia Cruz, a lab and clinic cleaner in York County and a Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals recipient, sometimes referred to as a Dreamer, from Mexico. “Everyday we have to decide between our lives or food on our table. Everyday we have to decide if all this effort is worth it.”
One recent study from the Center for Economic and Policy Research found that while Black workers make up about one in nine workers overall, they account for one-sixth of front-line industry workers.
Tom Smith, a home care worker in Montgomery County, said caregivers like him are often in the most vulnerable positions. With social distancing virtually impossible. Since “most caregivers receive no time off,” he said they are left choosing between “a paycheck and going to work sick.”
Some of the testifiers also shared broader labor concerns in Pennsylvania. The state’s public sector workers are still not protected by the Occupational Safety and Health Act standards, which covers the private sector but requires states to opt in to grant the public workforce with OSHA protections.
Steve Catanese, the president of the Pennsylvania Social Services Union Local 668, one of the largest state government employee unions, said that puts Pennsylvania on an “inglorious list of states” that haven’t extended OSHA to the public sector.
Rep. Pat Harkins, D-Erie County, recalled an infamous instance in 2014 where the lack of OSHA protections potentially allowed for an unsafe work environment. He said an Erie Metro Transit Agency worker was killed on the job and his investigation was further stonewalled. Harkins has since tried but failed to get the state to extend such OSHA protections.
“The rules are written in a way that are broken and work against working people,” Catanese said.
Catanese called it a “moral imperative” for the state government to act, particularly on areas of hazard pay, paid sick leave and requiring employers to provide adequate protective equipment.
“If we’re essential workers, we need to know that the state has our back,” Smith said.
The hearing comes amidst debate at the federal level for a potential new stimulus bill as the pandemic drags on. Early reports indicate U.S. Senate Republicans plan to introduce a bill that would drastically cut federal unemployment benefits compared to the first stimulus bill.
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