NC Workers Filed Hundreds COVID-19 Related Complaints In August
The North Carolina Department of Labor has received just under 5,000 complaints related to COVID-19 and the workplace since the pandemic began. At one point they were seeing an average of 500 COVID-19 complaints a month, that number decreased over the summer but quadrupled from July to August.
Workers say they don’t feel safe at work and that safety precautions are not in place to prevent the spread of the virus. Other complaints include not disclosing positive cases, telling people to come to work even if they have tested positive or risk being terminated, and not following the recommended policies for quarantining. One complaint, reported by ABC 11 said, “the employer is allowing employees that tested positive for the COVID-19 virus to return to work before they are free of symptoms.
Accord to the NC DOL 89 complaints remain open of the 4,722 complaints they have received. Around 50% of those were found to be legitimate. The majority of those complaints involved nursing facilities, the postal service, processing plants, and full-service restaurants. While all these industries are dealing with staffing issues, it does not excuse the employers’ behavior. Have you witnessed any behavior like these workers COVID-19 complaints with their employers?
