[quote=“Sand_Pebble, post:25, topic:54688”]
do you know anything about a law that says pay can’t be lost for people who lose work for testing positive or is that just a local company policy?
There are a number of different programs, federal and state, which help with this.
(from above website)
Emergency Paid Sick Leave Act and Emergency Family and Medical Leave Expansion Act, both part of the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA)…[this program reimburses] American private employers that have fewer than 500 employees with tax credits for the cost of providing employees with paid leave taken for specified reasons related to COVID-19…[so] that workers are not forced to choose between their paychecks and the public health measures… while at the same time reimbursing businesses.
Another federal program awards SBA grants to reimburse employers for the same thing.
Washington-state Employment Security has a COVID19 rule for time-off due to prevention.
So, there’s multiple programs, but also complexity. The SBA grants have to be applied for. Probably a quarter million companies are applying right now. Approval takes time. On the shore facility side of the operation, less than ten people have been sent home as a precaution, or because they had colds, etc. Between using sick-time to do this, and the unemployment benefits, people still get paid.
Most people in other companies I talk with say their rules are about the same as ours, with the same results. They’re operating under the assumption that it is costlier to have a case of COVID19 aboard a boat than to have a screening program to reduce the chance.
Companies around the world are still figuring this stuff out, and doing it amazingly quickly, given that the shit hit the fan in the USA only five weeks ago. But the bottom line in this company, at least, is that no one is losing much or any pay because of the emergency. Next week? Next month?
Over here, there’s a lot of social pressure going on from the officers. To a man, they are militant about keeping COVID19 off the boats. The few naysayers in the crew who discount the danger have been identified and shutdown by the officers. A case of the common cold aboard a boat will be viewed as evidence that someone didn’t follow the the rules, and my guess is that many captains would demand I fire an individual with a sneeze and a runny nose for threatening the lives of others.