Companies Push for Virus Legal Protection, Prompting Worker Concern

  • 📰 YahooNews
  • ⏱ Reading Time:
  • 143 sec. here
  • 4 min. at publisher
  • 📊 Quality Score:
  • News: 60%
  • Publisher: 59%

Nigeria News News

Nigeria Nigeria Latest News,Nigeria Nigeria Headlines

WASHINGTON -- When Jonathan Corpina, a senior managing partner at Meridian Equity Partners, returned to work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange in late May, he was met with temperature screenings, hand sanitizer stations, plexiglass barriers -- and a liability waiver.The stock exchange required

WASHINGTON — When Jonathan Corpina, a senior managing partner at Meridian Equity Partners, returned to work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange in late May, he was met with temperature screenings, hand sanitizer stations, plexiglass barriers — and a liability waiver.

But that idea has engendered stiff opposition, particularly among congressional Democrats and labor unions, who say some businesses are doing too little to protect vulnerable workers and that such a liability shield would only encourage reckless behavior. The debate is coming to a head in Washington as Congress considers its next round of coronavirus legislation. Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., the majority leader, has singled out liability protection as his conference’s top priority, with White House officials echoing that sentiment. Lawmakers expect some version of coronavirus relief to pass through both chambers before the end of the summer.

“You’ve got to give the businesses some confidence here that if something happens, and it may not be their fault — the disease is an infectious disease — if something happens, you can’t take them out of business,” the White House economic adviser, Larry Kudlow, said in April on CNBC. “You can’t throw big lawsuits at them.

But trial lawyers — as well as some legal experts — say the risk of lawsuits from workers or customers may be overstated. “Immunity signals to workers and consumers that they go back to work or they go to the grocery store at their peril,” Vladeck said.According to data collected by the law firm Hunton Andrews Kurth, 2,645 coronavirus-related lawsuits have been filed in the United States this year as of June 11. But the majority of those disputes relate to insurance coverage, prisoner and detainee petitions, and civil right cases, including challenges to stay-at-home orders.

Unions including the United Steelworkers, the United Farm Workers, the Teamsters and the American Federation of Teachers have also protested expanded liability protections, fearing that they would lead to laxer safety standards for workers. Many essential workers are already being forced to choose between their safety and a paycheck, union leaders say, and those risks are falling disproportionately on workers of color.

The White House has so far fought against issuing detailed standards for businesses, arguing they would infringe on religious rights and risk damaging the economy by making it too onerous for businesses to reopen. In negotiations over past relief packages, Democrats have pushed for more federal protections for workers under OSHA, and Republicans have repeatedly rejected those provisions.

Some workers have signaled that they would be willing to pursue litigation against their employers if they fell ill at work. In a survey of more than 500 workers conducted in May by the Sports and Leisure Research Group, Engagious and ROKK Solutions, 36% said they would most likely take legal action against their employers if they returned to work and contracted the coronavirus after learning that a co-worker had been infected.

 

Thank you for your comment. Your comment will be published after being reviewed.
Please try again later.

Well, have them tell their senators in Washington...Period...it's on the books!!

We have summarized this news so that you can read it quickly. If you are interested in the news, you can read the full text here. Read more:

 /  🏆 380. in NG

Nigeria Nigeria Latest News, Nigeria Nigeria Headlines

Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.

Tech companies push for nationwide facial recognition law. Now comes the hard partThree tech giants — Amazon, Microsoft and IBM — all said this week they will not sell facial recognition technology to police. But the moves announced this week by Big Tech are limited and largely temporary. Bcoz the algorithm is laced with racism. Hence California was the first city to curtail facial recognition tech - it embarrass the city to the core, racism is everywhere. Cities are banning facial recognition tech. So, tech giants (Amazon, IBM, Microsoft) are lobbying for a'reformed' version okay'd by Congress, that provides them 'light touch' cover, as they help craft new laws. Ban it at the town, city & state level now. If they do Americans can sue and hopefully win settlemnts let these knuckle fks know we as Americans Have right to steal someones face without concent and or permission wining a huge sum will teach these poor excuess for human beings
Source: CNN - 🏆 4. / 95 Read more »