Essential workers seek more protection
Hope Gilmore, a call center worker on Staten Island, New York, hasn't forgotten those bewildering early weeks of the coronavirus pandemic when colleagues were getting sick, her employer didn't provide any masks or gloves and people used the elevator one at a time to socially distance.
"We're on the frontlines like sacrificial lambs," Gilmore said Thursday.
But after being permitted to work from home after six people in her office contracted COVID-19, certain workers are now being asked to return, Gilmore said, a worrying request that coincides with New York City tentatively rolling out a third reopening phase this week, including businesses like nail salons and retail stores.
With people going back to work amid record coronavirus cases in cities and states across the country, workers such as Gilmore who were deemed "essential" at the beginning of the pandemic are again demanding protections and want state and local officials to put regulations in place that would sufficiently require and even penalize employers who don't comply with them.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/essential-workers-seek-more-protection/ar-BB16xKLk?li=BBnbcA1&ocid=DELLDHP
