Los Angeles Times - 04.04.2020

L ATIMES.COM S SATURDAY, APRIL 4, 2020A

BUSINESS

Workers at six Amazon

facilities in Southern Cali-

fornia have tested positive in

the last week for the virus

that causes COVID-19. Four

of those cases were con-

firmed and disclosed to

workers at the facilities in-

volved on Wednesday and

Thursday.

The newly affected facili-

ties are fulfillment center

ONT2 in San Bernardino,

the LGB8 inbound cross-

dock warehouse in Rialto,

delivery center DLA8 in

Hawthorne, and a smaller

Amazon Prime Now ware-

house in the Glassell Park

neighborhood of Los Ange-

les. The Hawthorne and

Glassell Park facilities both

handle the final stage of de-

liveries to customers in Los

Angeles, with the

Hawthorne facility handling

deliveries for much of L.A.'s

West Side.

Two other facilities in

Riverside and San Bernar-

dino counties had reported

cases in late March.

In a statement, Amazon

said that all employees diag-

nosed with COVID-19 or di-

rected to quarantine will re-

ceive up to two weeks of pay

to ensure they can self-iso-

late without worrying about

lost income. The company is

also offering unlimited un-

paid time off for all hourly

employees through the end

of April.

“We are supporting the

individuals who are recover-

ing,” said Timothy Carter,

an Amazon spokesman. “We

are following guidelines

from health officials and

medical experts, and are

taking extreme measures to

ensure the safety of employ-

ees at our site.”

The company said it had

informed other employees

at the affected sites about

each case. At ONT2 in San

Bernardino and LGB8 in Ri-

alto, employees were in-

formed via prerecorded

voice messages from their

managers.

The company’s Eastvale

warehouse in Riverside

County, which was the first

to report an employee test-

ing positive for COVID-19,

now has its third case as of

Thursday, The Times con-

firmed.

Warehouse employees

were notified about the most

recent case on Wednesday,

according to a worker who

asked not to be named for

fear of reprisal. Company

communications The Times

reviewed confirmed that

while Amazon is not paying

workers for the missed

shifts, the company is allow-

ing them to take time off

without penalty if they feel

uncomfortable coming in to

work.

“When I look at the oper-

ations leadership team who

are making $100,000 to

$150,000 a year, and they get

to go home without worrying

about if they’re going to get

paid, that bugs me,” the

Eastvale warehouse worker

said. “Because we’re still

here and if we go home, we

don’t get paid.”

Amazon said it is taking

measures to reduce infec-

tion in its facilities, including

increasing the frequency

and intensity of cleaning and

sanitizing of surfaces such

as door handles and screens

that multiple employees

touch during a workday. It is

also staggering shift times to

promote social distancing,

and suspending exit screen-

ings, which the company

typically performs to check if

employees are stealing mer-

chandise, to reduce traffic

jams at exits and entrances.

But Amazon warehouse

and delivery workers across

the country have called for

the company to do more to

protect them from the

spread of COVID-19 or com-

pensate them for the health

risks associated with work-

ing during the coronavirus

outbreak.

As The Times reported,

workers were told to stay

only three feet apart — half

of what the CDC recom-

mends — as recently as

March 24.

Amazon

workers

at six

facilities

infected

By Sam Dean

and Johana Bhuiyan

The flight attendant
spoke from a hospital bed,
with oxygen tubes coming
out of her nose.
In an Instagram post, the
young woman in black-
framed glasses, identified as
April Rodriguez, looked into
the camera and urged her
fellow flight attendants to
stop flying.
“It’s not worth it,” she
said between deep breaths.
“Forget your mortgage, for-
get your bills. Stay home.”
As the coronavirus out-
break continues to claim
new victims, frightened
flight attendants, including
some stricken by the virus,
are pushing airlines that
have already slashed capac-
ity by as much as 90% in the
last few weeks to reduce the
number of flights even more
to slow the spread of the
deadly disease.
The video of Rodriguez, a
JetBlue Airways flight at-
tendant who tested positive
for the coronavirus, was
posted March 23, nearly a
week after an American Air-
lines flight attendant, Paul
Frishkorn, died of COVID-
in Philadelphia.
About 150 flight attend-
ants have tested positive for
the deadly virus, with hun-
dreds more putting them-
selves in self-quarantine, ac-
cording to the Assn. of Flight
Attendants-CWA, which
represents more than 50,
flight attendants at 20 air-
lines.
Airline representatives
say the carriers have a proc-
ess of notifying employees if
they may have worked
alongside a staffer who
tested positive for the virus.
But in a letter to the Federal
Aviation Administration,
the Air Line Pilots Assn. said
some carriers haven’t been
following the guidance of the
Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention to notify
workers, Bloomberg re-
ported.
To help slow the spread of
the virus, the flight attend-
ants union wrote to the U.S.
Department of Transporta-
tion on Tuesday, urging the

agency to halt all leisure air

travel, limiting all passenger

flights to essential services,

such as flying medical sup-

plies and first responders to

hard-hit areas of the coun-

try. Sara Nelson, president

of the Assn. of Flight Attend-

ants, said the call to reduce

flights is intended, in part, to

help slow the spread of the

virus and reduce the risk to

flight attendants who are

worried about flying now.

“We had to make it clear

publicly that this is what we

are calling for because flight

attendants are absolutely

concerned,” she said in an

interview.

The association wants

airlines to cut all food service

on planes to reduce the con-

tact between flight attend-

ants and passengers and to

increase the amount of

cleaning supplies to keep the

planes sterile, Nelson said.

Several airlines have already

cut or dramatically reduced

food and beverage services.

The challenge, she said, is

to protect the flight crews

from being infected while en-

suring that the airline indus-

try doesn’t collapse.

“We’ve never seen a dis-

ruption like this that runs

straight through everyone,”

Nelson said. U.S. airlines

have about 750,000 employ-

ees, according to Airlines for

America, a trade group for

the country’s airlines.

The $2-trillion federal

stimulus plan sets aside

about $50 billion for airlines.

It requires carriers that

want grant money to contin-

ue paying employees’ sala-

ries and serving the same

destinations as they did

March 1. Nelson said she be-

lieves airlines can halt

leisure travel and still meet

the requirement to qualify

for grant funding.

As the pandemic rises

past 1 million infected peo-

ple globally, the crisis has be-

come particularly stressful

for workers who come in di-

rect contact with the public

and face a higher risk of con-

tracting the virus. That in-

cludes medical providers,

police, firefighters and air-

line workers.

In New York, more than

1,400 police officers have

tested positive for the virus.

State health departments in

Ohio and Minnesota say

that up to 20% of those in-

fected in those states are

healthcare professionals.

Frishkorn, 65, a flight at-

tendant for American Air-

lines since 1997 who was

based in Philadelphia, was

the first American Airlines

employee to die from the

virus, according to a state-

ment by the airline.

“He will be missed by the

customers he cared for and

everyone at American who

worked with him,” the

carrier said in a statement.

American Airlines said

the health and safety of its

crew members are its top

priority, adding that the

carrier has adjusted its pol-

icy to allow attendants to

wear gloves and masks dur-

ing all phases of the flight.

For attendants who are

still flying, Frishkorn’s death

only reinforced the dangers

posed by a job that puts

them in close quarters with

passengers and co-workers.

Other flight attendants

said they are feeling stressed

about the likelihood of being

infected at work, but their

biggest worry is passing the

virus on to their families. All

spoke on the condition that

they not be identified be-

cause they were instructed

by their employers to direct

all reporters’ questions to

the airlines’ communica-

tions departments.

“I’ve even taken steps to

isolate myself from my sig-

nificant other and family

when I’m home to avoid ex-

posing them, just in case,”

said a 10-year veteran of

Delta Air Lines.

Flight attendants say

employers are providing

gloves, masks and wipes to

sterilize their workstations,

but others say the supplies

are limited and running out.

A longtime American

Airlines flight attendant

said that she was awaiting

the results of a coronavirus

screening test this week af-

ter working separate shifts

with two flight attendants

who tested positive. “Oh, my

God. We are all scared,” the

flight attendant said. “The

stress level is crazy.”

She said she learned she

may have been exposed to

the virus through fellow

crew members, not from her

employer. “I’m nervous,” she

said. “I’m not going to lie.”

The flight attendant said

she is also frustrated that

she had to recently work —

and risk being exposed to

the virus — on a flight that

included passengers head-

ing to Florida for a vacation.

“That’s what’s getting me

mad,” she said. “Why are

they traveling right now?”

Stop flying, flight attendants urge

AUNIONfor flight attendants has urged a halt to all leisure air travel, limiting flights to essential services.

Genaro MolinaLos Angeles Times

‘It’s not worth it,’ says

one with COVID-19;

150 of her colleagues

have tested positive.

By Hugo Martín

New coronavirus laws
provide a litany of benefits to
the self-employed, freelanc-
ers and workers in the gig
economy. But what are the
benefits, and how do you
claim them?
Here are some answers
explaining how the laws af-
fect freelancers.

I lost my part-time gig
because of the coronavirus
lockdown. Can I claim
unemployment insurance?
Yes. The federal CARES
Actcreates a temporary
Pandemic Unemployment
Assistance program, which
provides unemployment
insurance coverage to self-
employed individuals, inde-
pendent contractors and
those with limited work
history. (You must be avail-
able for work but unable to
do your job as a result of the
pandemic.) All of these
individuals were barred
from claiming state unem-
ployment insurance ben-
efits prior to the passage of
this law.

How much will I get?
That depends on where
you live. Each state operates
its own unemployment
insurance program.
Requirements and pay-
out ratios vary from state to
state. For instance, Cali-
fornia’s unemployment
insurance programpro-
vides about 46% of working
wages, up to set limits.
Maximum unemployment
benefits amount to $450 a
week.
Thus, if you previously
earned $1,000 a week ($4,
a month), you’d get $450 in
weekly unemployment
coverage, or $1,800 per
month from the state of
California. The new CARES
Act adds a federal payment
of $600 a week to that. So,
this hypothetical worker

could get as much as $4,

a month.

However, if you live in

Alabama, the state’s maxi-

mum weekly benefit caps

out at $275. Thus, an unem-

ployed worker in Alabama

would receive a top benefit

of $1,100, plus $600 weekly

from the CARES Act, for a

total of $3,500.

What if that’s more than I

was making before the

pandemic started?

To be frank, many ex-

perts contacted this week

were uncertain how this

would work. State unem-

ployment programs are

generally designed to pro-

vide a portion — not all — of

what you earned when

working.

The CARES Act appears

to provide benefits that

could exceed what you

earned when working. And,

according to an analysis of

the law by employment law

specialists at Stroock &

Stroock & Lavan, most

eligible individuals would

receive no less than the

minimum required by the

Disaster Unemployment

Assistanceprogram, plus

$600 a week.

That means those who

were earning relatively low

wages could get more from

this enhanced unemploy-

ment program than they’d

get from wages. However,

someone earning more than

$53,000 would still just get a

portion of their working

wages.

Will this last?

No. There are several

sunset dates in the law. The

extra $600 weekly payments

end on July 31, 2020, says

Elizabeth DiMichele, spe-

cial counsel at Stroock.

Coverage of freelancers

under the Pandemic Unem-

ployment Assistance law

starts retroactively on Jan.

27 and lasts until the end of

the year.

However, each individual

freelancer receives a maxi-

mum of 39 weeks of benefits

under this federal law.

Unless federal benefits

are extended beyond that

point, state unemployment

insurance coverage restric-

tions would kick in then.

How do I claim benefits?

Through your state

unemployment insurance

program. (You can find a

link to your state’s website

here.)

But you may need to be

patient and persistent, says

Rafael Espinal, president

and executive director of the

Freelancers Union. With

more than 3 million people

swamping state unemploy-

ment websites with claims,

Espinal says he’s heard that

some sites are crashing

mid-application.

“Keep refreshing the

page and trying to apply,” he

advises. Your inability to get

through to the site immedi-

ately does not jeopardize

your benefits. Benefits can

be paid retroactively.

What if I lost my job weeks

ago?

Federal benefit pay-

ments under the Pandemic

Unemployment Assistance

program are retroactive to

Jan. 27, 2020. If you lost your

job as a result of the pan-

demic at any point after

that, you can claim benefits

for the lost weeks of work.

In addition, while some

states have waiting periods

to claim unemployment

benefits, the federal law

provides reimbursement to

any state that waives these

waiting periods. That’s

likely to mean that your

unemployment benefits will

start from the date that you

were first let go or unable to

get to work because of the

pandemic.

I wasn’t working yet, but I’d

been offered a job that’s

now on hold. Can I claim

benefits?

Yes. The program also

provides benefits to those

who were offered work but

now can’t start because the

job was delayed or they

cannot reach their work as a

result of travel restrictions.

I can’t work because I am

caring for someone who is

sick and am quarantined.

The law provides you

with unemployment cov-

erage, too. Apply online with

your state unemployment

insurance office. Self-em-

ployed individuals may also

be entitled to a tax credit for

sick days under the Families

First Coronavirus Response

Act, which was signed into

law in mid-March. How the

tax credit will be claimed,

and whether there will be

offsets for time that you

claimed unemployment

insurance, is unclear.

Kristof is the editor of

SideHusl.com, an

independent website that

reviews money-making

opportunities in the gig

economy.

How freelancers can get unemployment pay

WORKERS IN THEgig economy may claim unemployment benefits if they meet

criteria in the CARES Act. Above, social distancing at a Metro station in L.A.

Jason ArmondLos Angeles Times

By Kathy Kristof