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Pennsylvania agency leaving thousands of workers at risk

CHERYL LITTLE

Bellefonte

As the chair of SEIU Local 668’s statewide Department of Human Services (DHS) Health and Safety Committee, which represents thousands of social services workers employed by the Commonwealth in Pennsylvania, I receive reports from all over the state about conditions in DHS offices. I’ve reported this feedback to top management within DHS for weeks now, relaying circumstances like how many offices don’t have hand sanitizer or soap in the bathrooms.

I’ve also recently reached out to Dr. Rachel Levine, secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Health (DOH) who is the expert dealing with this virus in Pennsylvania. To date, I have not received a single response from the DHS or DOH regarding the health and safety of our members.

Members of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 668 provide essential social services to many residents in the Commonwealth, and they understand how important they are to ensuring our state still has a social safety net during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. However, our members ask that they be provided with a safe environment to conduct the business of our commonwealth.

On March 16, 2020, DHS Secretary Teresa Miller classified all income maintenance caseworkers (IMCW’s) and supervisors as essential employees. Previously, this same group of workers were classified as non-essential.

While I agree that our caseworkers are vital in the effort to help others in need of public assistance, I’m disheartened by the conditions in which these employees are expected to complete their work.

Many of the County Assistance Offices (CAOs) throughout the state are working with complete staff complements. This means that often, dozens, even over 100 workers in more heavily-populated areas, are sharing the same office space, restrooms and break rooms every single day. We’ve asked for regular cleaning, skeleton crews, staggered shifts and telework in these offices. While DHS has implemented staggered shifts for larger offices, there are still offices where more than 80 workers are expected to arrive every single day. The other requests have not yet been enacted.

Meanwhile, the workers are aware that CDC and DOH guidelines stipulate that people must be at least six feet apart from one another whenever they leave their homes. Unfortunately, some of these CAOs are so small, they’re not able to comply with these basic guidelines.

We’ve had multiple offices with confirmed cases of coronavirus in the last week. Unfortunately, DHS management did not tell workers immediately that they may have been exposed in many facilities. While we do not expect to have the names of individuals who have tested positive, it is incredibly important to be notified that an office may have been exposed to this virus. And it’s imperative that this notification is timely so that workers who are immuno-compromised or with high-risk family members at home know they may have been exposed.

One of the biggest concerns I share with our members is the lack of proper CDC-recommended deep cleaning performed whenever an office has a confirmed COVID-19 case. There are detailed guidelines of what must be done in order to protect office workers from exposure. However, so far as I know, DHS is not enforcing these cleanliness standards equally in every statewide County Assistance Office.

State-owned buildings are cleaned by workers with the Department of General Services (DGS). But most of the CAOs are leased office space, meaning a landlord is responsible for hiring and enacting cleaning standards. DHS has a history of not enforcing cleaning standards with leased buildings.

Those policies are continuing now, with offices not being properly cleaned between shifts or once a positive case is confirmed.

Be assured, we not believe the cleaners are acting irresponsibly in these CAOs. In many offices, the landlords do not provide their cleaners with masks and many more do not have proper cleaning supplies.This is just one more shortfall that DHS and Secretary Miller are overlooking, which will cause additional exposure and the continual spread of COVID-19.

We all are in this together. SEIU Local 668 members who work in County Assistance Offices statewide want to work. We want to provide the vulnerable citizens of our state who are struggling with the assistance they need and deserve. However, if proper health and safety procedures and policies are not enacted and followed, we could lose an entire workforce.

My union sisters and brothers are the social safety net that our Commonwealth desperately needs –we will not stop fighting for our fellow Pennsylvanians, but who will fight for us? In solidarity.

(Cheryl Little is chair of Chapter 7, Service Employees International Union (SEIU), Local 668, and chairs the chapter’s Department of Human Services Health & Safety Committee.)

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