Many businesses aren’t sure if they can legally keep operating
Ten months after opening their own O’Hara-based roofing business, Sara and Juan Rodriguez aren’t sure if they can continue operating.
The roofing season was already off to a slow start, in part because of the spread of COVID-19 through the state, Ms. Rodriguez said.
Now, following Gov. Tom Wolf’s order Thursday that all “non-lifesustaining” businesses must close their physical operations, she’s not sure if they are legally allowed to keep working. Roofing might not be a “life-sustaining” operation, Ms. Rodriguez said — but what happens if the roof of a massive apartment building starts to leak?
Late Friday, the governor’s office announced that the enforcement of his order would be at 8 a.m. on Monday. Originally, the enforcement was supposed to begin Saturday.
Under Mr. Wolf’s latest order, businesses in the construction industry are not permitted to continue operating, except for emergency repairs. Companies that provide maintenance and repair work are. So, where does MVM Roofing fall?
“I think at this point everyone’s waiting to see what we’re allowed
to go forward with,” Ms. Rodriguez said of her team, which includes her, her husband and about six independent contractors. “It’s hard to make a plan.”
On Friday evening, the governor revised which businesses qualify as life-sustaining, adding accountants, payroll administrators and tax preparers to the list. He also streamlined the process for businesses to ask for exemptions. But many small businesses were still left wondering which group they would fall in and what options they had if they didn’t agree.
Many felt they were caught in limbo, said Gordon Denlinger, state director of the National Federation of Independent Businesses in Pennsylvania, an advocacy group that represents 13,000 small and independent businesses in the state.
“A coin laundry owner has angry customers who want to wash their clothes due to the viral outbreak, but laundry services have been ordered to shut down. Machine shops must close, but what if they produce medical parts?” Mr. Denlinger said in a news release Friday. “Plumbing wholesalers are on the list to stay open, but what about the local plumber with a customer who’s (sic) water is out
— the list doesn’t clarify that.”
To clear up some of the confusion, the state provided an email address — radcedcs@pa.gov — for businesses to inquire about their status.
It also offered a business exemption form where companies could apply for a waiver to continue operating. A Department of Community and Economic Development spokeswoman said Friday the state was receiving a steady stream of waiver applications.
The waiver request asked each business to define how it met the life-sustaining definition, if it had a plan to meet federal guidelines to maintain employee safety during the COVID-19 outbreak, and how many employees would be in the company’s offices.
Already, John Gotaskie Jr., a partner with law firm Fox Rothschild who represents a number of manufacturers, said he knows several companies who have had their exemption requests granted.
As soon as news of Mr. Wolf’s order became public, his phone started ringing.
“What I’ve encouraged everyone to try to show is why their particular operation is critical to the supply chain,” he said, especially to the production and delivery of goods that are already considered life-sustaining.
HarbisonWalker International,
a 150-year-old manufacturing company in Moon that is not considered life-sustaining under the new order, thinks it is part of that extended supply chain.
The manufacturer produces refractory materials — or the lining that protects both the equipment and the people in manufacturing plants for everything from cement to pulp and paper. Since many of HWI’s manufacturing clients are permitted to continue operating, the company is arguing its clients still need its products.
“The harsh reality is, if there is no waiver granted, the companies that are being asked to produce products will, eventually and rather quickly, run out of products,” said HWI chairman and CEO Carol Jackson.
The state’s order is “simply not feasible,” the company said in a statement issued Friday.
To make sure it can continue operating, HWI said it is filing for a waiver, as well as seeking clarifications or revisions to the order.
“Even if we were forced to close down our own operations that are producing, it would take several days in order for us to do that,” Ms. Jackson said. “We can’t just turn it off and walk away.”
Already, HWI has implemented policies for those employees that can work from home, including most of its 215 employees in Western Pennsylvania.
Across the state, the closure orders will be enforced by the Liquor Control Board, the Department of Health, the Department of Agriculture, state police and local officials within their jurisdiction, according to a release from the governor’s office.
Though the order will mean “significant economic disruption,” the governor’s office believes it is the best course of action to help stop the spread of COVID-19, said Rachel Wrigley, deputy director of communications for the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development.
The state is continually reviewing the list of life-sustaining businesses to ensure essential services are provided to the public, Ms. Wrigley said Friday.
Businesses that don’t comply with the orders could face citations, fines or license suspensions.
The loss of a license is what Ms. Rodriguez, the roofing company owner, worries about most. And as an immigrant-owned business, she said the company is very careful about following the laws, “so as not to have any sort of problems with anybody.”
“I don’t know how they would police it,” Ms. Rodriguez said. “But we definitely don’t want to be caught doing something that was ordered not to be done.”