Safety is essential

Rush to reopen leaves Texas workers caught between choosing health or paycheck.

Can you be essential and disposable?

When it comes to many of the people we depend on during the pandemic — whether for manning our hospitals, processing our food or stocking store shelves — the answer has been a callous shrug. Across the country, as front-line workers get sick and die, our message to them has been as simple as it is shameful: You are needed. You are vital. But don’t expect us to keep you safe.

Meat and poultry processing plants in Texas have turned rural counties into coronavirus hot spots, with workers forced to stand side by side regardless of the danger. Health care workers have not only struggled with lack of protective equipment, they were left out of expanded paid sick leave protections by Congress. Grocery store workers are required to wear masks to protect the public, but customers too often fail to return the favor.

This is outrageous and a dark omen as retail stores, restaurants, movie theaters and malls prepare to reopen Friday following Gov. Greg Abbott’s executive order. His approach to reopening has been appropriately measured, but if more isn’t done to ensure worker safety, the new order will put even more workers at risk of serious illness or death.

It is not enough to thank them for their service or to appreciate their sacrifice. We must do all we can to make sure workers are protected. That means demanding state and federal governments attune workplace safety rules to fit the immediate crisis.

“So many people are going to be facing these horrible choices of weighing their safety, and the public’s safety, against what for many is a desperate need to have a paycheck,” Texas AFL-CIO President Rick Levy told the editorial board.

So far, neither federal nor state governments have adopted standards to safeguard workers from the novel coronavirus, and those who refuse to work out of safety concerns have little recourse.

Texas doesn’t have any agency with oversight over workplace safety, so it is up to the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration. OSHA has taken a largely hands-off approach and been slow to address complaints, worker advocates said. It has failed to issue specific guidelines for employers on dealing with the pandemic, limiting its own ability to enforce safety issues related to the outbreak.

Without a clear set of rules, workers must rely on their employers to do the right thing. Fortunately, some have.

Responsible companies, such as the 151 businesses who have signed on to the Greater Houston Partnership’s Work Safe program, have agreed to much-needed commonsense safety measures, including allowing employees to work from home when possible, implementing social distancing, requiring sick workers to stay home and adjusting paid sick leave policies.

These principles echo the recommendations included in a report released Monday by the governor’s Strike Force to Open Texas. Both are worthwhile efforts to keep workers safe, but what’s needed are enforceable rules — not principles and recommendations — which allow accountability and protect vulnerable employees working for bosses who aren’t as responsible.

These rules would protect workers who are on the job and give workers the right to delay a return to their jobs if the risk is too high. A bright spot on the latter issue emerged Tuesday, as the Texas Workforce Commission said it is “working to develop clarity” on what would allow people to remain on unemployment if they are uncomfortable returning to work during the outbreak.

Otherwise, Texans must ordinarily go back to work as businesses reopen. If they don’t, they become ineligible for aid, forcing them to choose between their health and their livelihood.

The TWC must move quickly and allow for broad discretion, otherwise the point becomes moot. It is unconscionable to ask someone who has tried to navigate the state’s broken unemployment system for weeks to now spend more time making a case for their health concerns in the hope they will prevail.

Workers deserve far better than what they’ve gotten. In the rush to restart the economy and get Texas back to a semblance of normalcy, we need to make sure they have the protections they need. Otherwise, the work may still be there but workers may not.