United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW), a union that represents 1.3 million people, is calling for grocery store workers to be temporarily designated as first responders or emergency personnel.
According to The Shift Project's study, only 8% of workers can take off at least 14 days—the length of a recommended COVID-19 quarantine—and even fewer report being able to take more days. The report also notes how many employees report having to skip medical care due to affordability issues (27%), how many have faced hunger hardships (34%), and how many do not have $400 available for an emergency (45%).
Violet Moya, a Texas resident, describes her spontaneous firing from Sephora and how, from her point of view, the incident exemplifies that Sephora never really cared about employees like her. She describes herself as one of the hourly service sector workers that wanted more hours, but instead was given unstable schedules and few benefits.
California Governor Gavin Newsom signed an executive order requiring companies in the food sector to offer two weeks of paid leave to full-time workers that are exposed to COVID. Part-time workers are also covered, to a lesser extent.
The Shift Project's report highlights a lack of paid sick leave access service workers have across the largest companies and the even smaller percentage that can take two weeks off to self-quarantine after COVID exposure.
The cities of San Jose and San Francisco passed emergency bills that require large companies to give all their employees 14 days of paid sick leave if they contract COVID-19. The federal coronavirus bill, which guarantees 14 days of paid sick leave and leave time for issues related to COVID, exempts business with less than 50 employees or more than 500, and as result, the bill only covers about 25% of all workers.
NBC Bay Area finds that workers are worried about taking time off from work because they may lose their jobs otherwise. In their investigation, NBC points out to the nearly 20 million workers receive little or no paid sick leave from their employers, which is further explored in The Shift Project's findings.
Initially, Kroger announced a new paid sick leave policy that would give employees 14 paid days to anyone diagnosed with COVID or placed under mandatory quarantine, a policy that has been described as insufficient. However, after the publishing of the article, Kroger announced an expansion to include anyone told to self-isolate by a health care professional.
Walmart announced a new paid sick leave policy covering employees anyone diagnosed with COVID or placed under mandatory quarantine, but many workers continue to express their worry that these policies are not enough.
