* Jonathan Ballew at the Daily Beast…
As Americans continue to shelter in place amid the COVID-19 pandemic, a record 22 million people have filed for unemployment over the past four weeks, and many more have struggled to access benefits. But some of the very workers who process those claims have started to fear for their own health.
Multiple employees with the Illinois Department of Employment Security (IDES) told The Daily Beast they were being forced to work in an unsafe office environment even though they could theoretically get their jobs done from home.
“A quarter of our office is not coming in because they don’t want to die,” one IDES employee told The Daily Beast. […]
“Nobody is wearing masks,” said another IDES worker. “There is no social distancing.”
After this story was published, a spokesperson for IDES told The Daily Beast the agency had been deemed essential. “Because of this, there are essential employees who are required to report to their physical work location, although we are working to provide as many essential employees as possible with the proper IT, privacy, and confidentiality resources to continue and complete their work from home.”
* I checked in with AFSCME Council 31 to see what the union knows. Here’s Anders Lindall…
AFSCME represents more than 900 employees in IDES. Responding to the historic surge in unemployment claims and getting jobless folks the benefits they need and deserve, union members in IDES are doing vital work to help their communities in the wake of the pandemic crisis. And they’re doing it under intense stress caused by the enormous volume of claims and the knowledge that applicants are desperate for income.
As with every employer, we have urged IDES to move as many employees as possible to work remotely. Right now 40 percent of our members in the agency are teleworking, with another 20 percent set to move to remote next week. We continue to push for that transition wherever possible, not only to maximize social distancing but to respond to concerns from members including high-risk health conditions and lack of child care.
For those employees still required to come to the worksite, at our urging every IDES office should be implementing staff rotations to reduce the number of people and their proximity in any location, providing adequate supplies of hand sanitizer and disinfectant wipes, reimbursing employees for masks and gloves and ensuring regular deep cleaning of every office.
We believe those practices are being followed in most instances and we’re continually following up with management in locations where members have raised ongoing concerns. Whether in IDES, throughout state government or in any other setting, no one should be put at unnecessary risk, their family exposed, or their community introduced to viral spread as a consequence of doing the essential public service work that must go on.
OK, but in my opinion, the state should be requiring its workers to wear masks in the office.
- Annonin - Friday, Apr 17, 20 @ 12:38 pm:
So sayeth DR.Capt Fax. anyone got a line on where we can find a mask stand in town? maybe Butler or Don can i.d. those spots
- Grandson of Man - Friday, Apr 17, 20 @ 12:41 pm:
No way should these employees or any employees, public or private sector, have to risk their lives if they can work remotely. Offices have been closed progressively, like DHS, where before yesterday some offices were still open to the public.
Thankfully in some big ways the state has transitioned to remote work for many, but improvements must always be considered and made when necessary.
The lack of supplies for those workers who must serve the public is incomprehensibly wrong. Workers don’t go to work to get sick and die. They should have every right and ability to protect themselves.
- Demoralized - Friday, Apr 17, 20 @ 12:44 pm:
Annonin
Agencies can get surgical masks through IEMA. And I know that the procurement folks working together statewide have been ordering them
- Cubs in '16 - Friday, Apr 17, 20 @ 12:46 pm:
The work at IDES is essential but it’s the lack of technology making it necessary for some employees to work from their offices. The State knew IT was lacking prior to the pandemic and they were ok with that. This issue was wholly avoidable.
- Rich Miller - Friday, Apr 17, 20 @ 12:47 pm:
===where we can find a mask===
Etsy.
- Demoralized - Friday, Apr 17, 20 @ 12:54 pm:
==This issue was wholly avoidable.==
Yeah, because everyone was prepared for a situation where we needed to attempt to get nearly the entire state workforce up and running from hom.
There is plenty to criticize the state for in terms of information technology abilities. This isn’t one of them. I think, for the most part, things have gone a lot better than they could have.
- Asst. Mgr. Strickland Propane - Friday, Apr 17, 20 @ 12:55 pm:
- Annonin 12:38 -
It has been repeatedly said by the U.S. Surgeon General and other medical experts that if you do not have a N95 mask you can make your own out of cloth. If you are unable to sew perhaps somebody in your community is selling them on facebook or go to Etsy. I just ordered a cloth mask online for $10 that has a pouch to add a filter, and will cut up an unused vacuum filter to use.
- Candy Dogood - Friday, Apr 17, 20 @ 1:34 pm:
Rich, they can’t require that PPE be worn when they can’t provide it.
And anything other than an N95 isn’t really PPE. But that’s a moot point because it’s not like IDES or other agencies is distributing cloth or fabric masks either.
And what happens at one office doesn’t happen at all offices, and what is happening at all offices isn’t always reported to the Powers that Be.
It would be nice if the Governor’s office created a hotline for agency employees to specifically and directly report issues they’re experiencing instead of relying on lines of communication full of entrenched bureaucrats that would rather not report anything negative because it looks bad.
- Lester Holt’s Mustache - Friday, Apr 17, 20 @ 1:44 pm:
Agencies (or anyone else, for that matter) cannot get hand sanitizer and disinfectant wipes right now, because it’s all back ordered. Masks are very hard to come by, too, unless the workers make their own and bring it with them. But with 40-60% working from home, the least that IDES could do is to spread everyone out.
- Cubs in '16 - Friday, Apr 17, 20 @ 2:40 pm:
===everyone was prepared===
The technology required to work from home varies from agency to agency and program to program but much of what I hear from State coworkers and from personal experience is that it wouldn’t be that heavy of a lift if our computers had the basic specs. A lot of the software that needs to be downloaded so we can work from home isn’t supported by our ancient laptops. As I’ve commented before, mine runs on Windows 7. I can’t even open some email attachments and tech support no longer exists. DoIT was aware of the tech issues staff was having before being sent home. So yeah, a good chunk of this was avoidable.
- MyTwoCents - Friday, Apr 17, 20 @ 4:25 pm:
Candy Dogood, every time it’s something about State employees. Do you have any evidence of all your accusations or do you just like to disparage them? Secondly, any barrier is better than nothing at this stage in the game, particularly when it’s going to who only knows how many months before N95s are widely available again.