Evolving Workplace Complaints in the COVID-19 Era
Surreal times. Face masks, gloves, home confinement, closed offices, and brave essential workers. COVID-19 has rapidly altered the American workplace. Employers — particularly Human Resources professionals — are grappling with a host of difficult issues. How to monitor a remote workplace, how to keep employees safe, how to manage the return to the workplace, to name a few. In this blog post, we explore some possible trends related to employee complaints.
More Discrimination Complaints. Consider this. Audrey received a 20% pay cut several weeks ago, and was told cuts were necessary due to reduced sales. In a call with her co-worker, Audrey learns other employees did not receive the same pay cut. Her next call is likely to Human Resources. To transition to the remote economy, employers have had to alter assignments, change employee schedules, reclassify workers, cut pay, and institute furloughs. And fast. With more changes to come. This means a higher risk of misunderstandings about management decision-making during a time when employees are particularly worried about job security. And, COVID-19 has already spurred new laws and regulations which provide increased protections for workers, such as the Families First Coronavirus Response Act. Employees will certainly bring complaints when they do not believe those protections have been provided in a fair or compliant manner.
Continued Sexual Harassment Complaints. During a recent Zoom meeting, Audrey is embarrassed and uncomfortable when her supervisor leads the meeting from his bedroom. Audrey can see a nude photograph framed above his bed when her supervisor takes a bathroom break. Even without face-to-face interactions, sexual harassment claims will continue. The remote workplace is equally fertile ground for sexually offensive posts, inappropriate phone calls, unwanted sexual comments, or sexually offensive photos or imagery. It is also foreseeable that employees might be more prone to making ill-advised comments or entering into personal or intimate conversations, given the blurring of lines between home and work and collective feelings of isolation and vulnerability.
More Workplace Safety Complaints. Zack has been working at Superstore for nearly six weeks, stocking the shelves with essential items like toilet paper and hand sanitizer. He has interacted closely with customers who crowd around the area, uncomfortably close to Zach and each other. Finally, Superstore enacts social distancing requirements and asks customers to wear face protection. Zack becomes ill and tests positive for COVID-19. Healthcare workers and other employees in “essential” industries like groceries and pharmacies have already begun to file complaints in response to employers’ inadequate safety protocols. For example, medical professionals have complained about hospital policies prohibiting them from wearing protective face masks in certain areas, such as lobbies and waiting rooms. Likewise, Amazon is seeing an uptick in employee concerns over the cleanliness of its warehouses and its health screening protocols for workers. And, as we look forward to the lifting of shelter-in-place mandates, workers returning to non-essential functions will be on high alert about safety, from concerns about insufficiently cleaned workspaces to inadequate social distancing practices. Retaliation claims will follow. Employees who complain about safety may perceive employment decisions are not being made for legitimate business reasons, but instead for retaliatory purposes.
Given these trends, employers and employees will continue to be challenged as we move through the dramatic shifts of the past few months, as well as those still to come. As workplace investigators, we stand ready to assist by conducting thorough, impartial and prompt investigations to help address workplace complaints and concerns.
Deborah Maddux is a founding partner of Van Dermyden Maddux Law Corporation. Her practice focuses on conducting workplace and Title IX campus investigations, expert witness work, workplace coaching for employees and supervisors and conflict resolution training.
Matthew Rose is an Associate Attorney with Van Dermyden Maddux Law Corporation. His practice focuses on conducting workplace and Title IX campus investigations.
The foregoing is for informational purposes only and is not legal advice, nor should be construed as such.
