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Law360 (March 11, 2020, 7:01 PM EDT) -- The AFL-CIO called on Congress Wednesday to pass several emergency measures to protect workers from the coronavirus, including legislation to guarantee all workers paid time off and boost exposure controls for health workers.
The labor federation threw its weight behind two proposed measures calling on the U.S. Department of Labor to temporarily boost safety standards for frontline health care workers and giving all workers 14 days of paid sick time during public health crises, and suggested other measures to mitigate the virus' damage.
"We urge Congress to do its part by passing emergency legislation at the scale and the urgency that this threat requires," Governmental Affairs Director William Samuel wrote in a letter to all members of the House of Representatives.
The federation's letter comes the same day the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic — a disease that has spread across the world — and a day after the number of confirmed cases in the U.S. topped 1,000.
The rapid spread of the deadly disease requires a swift, multipronged response from lawmakers, including passing the COVID-19 Health Care Worker Protection Act, the AFL-CIO said.
That bill, proposed by U.S. House of Representatives Education and Labor Committee Chairman Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Va. on Monday, would require that the DOL's Occupational Safety and Health Administration issue an Emergency Temporary Standard boosting exposure protections for frontline health care workers. The DOL has the power to issue such standards in emergencies, but has not done so for COVID-19.
The federation also urged Congress to pass the Public Health Emergencies and Personal and Family Care Act, which would make paid sick time mandatory nationwide. That bill, introduced in the Senate by Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash. and in the House by Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., on March 6, would make employers give all workers seven days of paid sick time, plus another 14 days during a "public health emergency."
Congress should also extend workers' unemployment benefits if they lose their jobs due to the outbreak, the AFL-CIO said.
"The COVID-19 virus has highlighted the inadequacy of our system of paid sick leave, workers' compensation, and unemployment insurance, which must now be modernized and improved to address the crisis," the group said.
The AFL-CIO also called on lawmakers Wednesday to provide free widespread virus testing, expand access to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, the Women, Infants and Children program and the school lunch program, and develop plans to blunt the virus' economic effects.
"This should include consideration of additional funding assistance to state and local governments … making direct payments to households, and investments in infrastructure," the federation said. A payroll tax cut, which President Donald Trump has suggested, would be "too slow and too modest" and undermine social security, the group said.
"This is a public health crisis that demands strong and decisive action," the group said. "We urge you to act without delay."
--Editing by Alanna Weissman.
For a reprint of this article, please contact reprints@law360.com.
