BossFeed Briefing for August 9, 2021. Last Wednesday, the Biden Administration issued a new two-month moratorium on evictions. Also last Wednesday, The Seattle Times reported that Okanogan County-based Gebbers Farms reached a settlement with the WA Dept. of Labor & Industries requiring the company to spend more than $2 million to improve farmworker housing & healthcare. Last Friday marked one month until federal emergency pandemic unemployment benefits are set to expire. Today is International Day of the World’s Indigenous People. This Saturday is the 86th anniversary of the signing of the Social Security Act.
Three things to know this week:
Heat was a contributing factor in the death of Yakima farmworker Florencio Gueta Vargas in July, according to the Yakima County coroner’s office. Temperatures in the Yakima Valley were in the 90s when Vargas collapsed while working in a hops field.
Postmates is paying nearly $1 million to 1,600+ gig delivery drivers in Seattle for failing to provide required sick leave. It’s the latest enforcement action from the Seattle Office of Labor Standards, which has so far moved more than $5 million from big gig companies to gig workers.
Billionaire Oprah Winfrey turned a tidy $5.7 million profit on the sale of her Orcas Island estate. San Juan County counted 133 homeless people last year.
Two things to ask:
Who wouldn’t want to work there? Spiffy’s Restaurant & Bakery in Chehalis has closed permanently, with the owner complaining it’s been “almost impossible” to find enough employees. That same owner spent months last year risking workers’ health by publicly defying COVID rules and racking up nearly $500K in fines.
Can someone pass us a barf bag? Alaska Air unveiled a new sick leave policy which penalizes pilots who call out sick more than five times per year. A spokesperson for the airline said the new policy is simply intended to ensure they have “reliable employees.”
And one thing that's worth a closer look:
Lately there's been a lot of blame aimed at people who haven’t yet been vaccinated against COVID, often alleging that they’ve failed to take personal responsibility for their own safety — but as Bryce Covert writes in the New York Times, many of the unvaccinated still face major systemic barriers that prevent them from accessing the vaccine. Unvaccinated people across the United States are more likely to be low income, food insecure, at risk for eviction, and caring for young kids at home. Many worry about missing out on wages they need, lack sufficient paid time off to get the shot and deal with its side effects, don’t believe the vaccine is free because of their experiences with the healthcare system, and may also struggle to secure transportation or afford childcare. Covert urges government officials leading vaccination efforts to put the ‘public’ back in ‘public health’: our approach can’t be about blaming and punishing a collection of rugged individuals for failing to make proper choices; instead, it has to be about taking shared responsibility to address barriers to individual health and keep each other safe.
Read this far? Consider yourself briefed, boss.
Let us know what you think about this week's look at the world of work, wages, and inequality!