In a recent development related to the global pandemic, the US states and cities are encouraging the workers to report their employers’ violations related to coronavirus shutdown. The New York Attorney General’s office in its announcement recently asked the workers to get in touch if they felt their employees are violating either the existing labor laws or recently issued New York State executive orders, including Governor Andrew Cuomo’s shutdown order and other COVID-19 related directives.
In the latest development with regards to the COVID-19 pandemic, it was revealed that some portion of the US workers fear that they will not be able to sustain during coronavirus pandemic. About 1 in 5 said that staying at home can lead to an inability to meet basic financial needs like paying rent or buying groceries. In a survey, carried out by Axios and market research firm Ipsos shared that while there is a stability in the access to the basic goods like food and toilet paper, about 31% of the workers feel that their access to healthcare has gotten worse and about 35% of workers reported about deteriorating mental health.
According to a statement by the Reach, the publisher of the Daily Mirror, Daily Express, and Daily Star newspapers will furlough about 1,000 of the employees, while the management along with the senior editorial team will take a pay cut by a fifth. The statement also featured the intend of the organization to furlough about 20% of its 4,700 employees during the coronavirus pandemic. It also stated that the ‘most senior editorial team’ will take a 20% cut in their salaries, while all the other employees will take a 10% pay cut.
According to the data collected on 27 March 2020, by the job posting site Indeed, there was a slump in the US labor market. The data revealed the occupations that were heavily affected by coronavirus has witnessed a dramatic change as compared to last year. The researchers also pointed out the fact that usually there is a surge throughout the spring, but this year the job postings are down by 15.2% as compared to 2019. Indeed also revealed that the surge in slowdown has been quite recent and the gap was about 7.2% as of 21 March 2020.
According to the Gender Pay Scorecard three of 50 major companies – Starbucks, Mastercard, and Citigroup – received an ‘A’ grade on their gender parity efforts. The scorecard was released on March 31, 2020, in recognition of Equal Pay Day. The scorecard revealed more than half of the top companies like AT&T, Goldman Sachs, McDonald's and Walmart received an ‘F’ grade thus failing in their commitment to gender parity.
According to the survey results from law firm Blank Rome, employers are still confused about how to respond to the coronavirus pandemic, including how it relates to employee complaints. The survey that was conducted between March 19 and March 23 revealed that only 12% of companies had received one or more complaints related to coronavirus. The survey also revealed that more than 93% of the complaints don’t fall under the traditional framework of employee complaints.
According to a survey conducted by Zenefits Workest about 30% of employees avoid going to HR with their problems while one-fifth of them don’t trust HR in their organization. There were about 500 employees and 300 HR professionals who contributed to the survey. The survey revealed a gap between HR and employees as about 31% of respondents revealed that they feared retaliation, while about 23% said they have experienced poor HR in their previous organization.
Gig workers like Uber and Lyft drivers have hit a bureaucratic wall in their efforts to apply for coronavirus jobless benefits, which were promised to all unemployed employees by Congress as state agencies. The said delay in the benefits claim by the state agencies is because they are clueless about how to handle this class of workers who are new to the US unemployment system. Gig workers, who were before the pandemic was considered as independent contractors, have been included in the federal government’s coronavirus stimulus bill to receive unemployment benefits, usually reserved for full-time employees.
The latest development in relation to the global pandemic coronavirus, Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc came under pressure for its policies amid COVID-19. The fast-food giant was under fire in just less than two months after it settled with NY city regulators over paid sick leave. According to a press call on Thursday, the chair of the city council’s health committee joined the Chipotle employees to voice concerns about the chain’s emergency pay policies that were not implemented properly.
In a recent development related to coronavirus, EU exec on Wednesday offered a wage-subsidy scheme to encourage employers to cut workers’ hours instead of cutting their jobs amid the coronavirus pandemic. According to EU exec, it is a plan that could be worth 100 billion euros in burrowing guaranteed by all EU countries. The proposal may find favor in countries like Italy, Spain, and France among others and may face opposition from countries like Germany, the Netherlands, Finland, and Austria.
According to a news report by BBC on Wednesday 1 April 2020, IAG-owned British Airways was expected to announce the suspension of 36,000 employees amid coronavirus crisis. The news agency also reported that airline has reached a broad deal with Unite union that would include layoffs of about 80% of jobs of BA’s cabin crew, ground staff, engineers and those working at head office.
As coronavirus makes its presence felt on the economy, another bank reel under its pressure as Italy’s top bank UniCredit is almost in agreement with unions post about two months of talks on layoffs. The bank before the talks wanted to suspend its 6,000 in its home market under a new four-year business plan. The agreement, which is expected to announce on 2 April 2020, has come at a time when the bank is battling coronavirus outbreak by closing more than its two-thirds of its branches and also stop dividend payments.
Amidst all the depressing news in the wake of global pandemic spread, there comes positive news from the Wall Street bank Goldman Sachs. The bank announced 10 days of paid family leave to its employees. The move was initiated by the bank for the employees to take care of their children and elderly parents during the coronavirus pandemic. Several other banks have also followed suit and offered extra paid time-off to their employees, as COVID-19 brought the life to a standstill.
According to an internal memo by Morgan Stanley, CEO James Gorman’s declaration about no job cuts for employees in 2020 inspired other banks to also follow suit. Banks like Citi, Wells Fargo and Bank of America joined in with Morgan Stanley to assure their employees that there would be no job cuts in the year. While the banks have stalled the move temporarily, the move has been followed by numerous other companies as well.
The recent development in the coronavirus pandemic has resulted in lots of gig workers either walking out or being fired by the organization. The Amazon worker who coordinated a walkout of staff members from its Staten Island warehouse has been fired. The reason cited by the retail giant was that the said worker was supposed to stay at home for 14 days on paid leave, as he had come in close contact with one of the workers who tested positive for the disease.
In a recent development in the area related to coronavirus – the warehouse, delivery, and other retail gig workers in the US went on strike on 30 March 2020. The strike was organized to call attention to safety and wage concerns for workers who are endangering their lives and laboring through coronavirus crisis. According to Instacart worker Vanessa Bain, there were about 200,000 workers from the online grocery delivery company Instacart. There were reports of about 15 workers walking off from their jobs at Amazon warehouse in New York.
According to an internal memo released by the automaker Fiat Chrysler, it stated top executives and other salaried would opt for about 20-50% pay cut amid the global coronavirus pandemic. A move is an act of ‘shared sacrifice’ brought on by the deadly COVID-19 outbreak, which has resulted in shuttered the Europe and North America plants. In the memo, CEO Mike Manley stated he would take a 50% of the pay cut starting 1 April 2020. The other global staff would be asked to go for a temporary 20% pay cut, the directors and the chairman would forego the rest of 2020 compensation.
In a recent announcement made by Air New Zealand on 31 March 2020, revealed that it would lay off about a third of its employees in the coming months. The announcement revealed that about 3,500 employees would be laid off as it struggles with the severe curbs on travel amidst the coronavirus outbreak. The airline had to also ground its almost entire fleet. The company also announced that it would start the large scale layoffs of its global staff within this week.
According to an online directory launched this week, by American Staffing Association (ASA), ASA and Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA) had joined forces to fight the grave shortage of retail workers during coronavirus outbreak. The announcement made on 25 March 2020 revealed that ASA has partnered with RILA to address the immediate and critical need to fill up the vacancies for retail workers at grocery stores and pharmacies.
According to an announcement made by IRS and the US Department of Labor (DOL) on 20 March 2020, it was revealed employers who are subjected to the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) would be eligible for two new refundable payroll tax credits that would ‘immediately and fully reimbursed them’ for complying with the paid leave mandate. The announcement also stated the credits were designed to grant 100% reimbursement for paid leave pursuant to the FFCRA.
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