Sponsored by the Randall W. Lewis Family Foundation
COVID Claims: Over 5,000 Californians file for Workers’ Comp
The coronavirus pandemic sent overall workers’ compensation claims plummeting as California workplaces shut down and fewer employees were injured on the job.
Statewide Industry Guidance to Reduce Risk, State of California
As California reopens, every business will need to create a safer, low-risk environment. If you own or manage a business, follow the guidance below to protect your workers and customers.
Investigation: COVID rips through motel rooms of guest workers who pick nation’s produce
Guest worker outbreaks in California have sickened hundreds and killed at least one domestic worker, according to an investigation by CalMatters and The Salinas Californian. Meanwhile, harvesting companies haven’t always notified local public health departments.
Coronavirus: Oakland gives ‘first dibs’ to laid off airport and hotel workers
Hotel and travel businesses will have to rehire by seniority. Oakland is the latest city to pass a “right to recall” ordinance, following San Francisco and Los Angeles.
A post-COVID-19 model of tourism and hospitality workforce resilience
However, non-standard work is also associated with insecurity and income instability, which can negatively effect mental health and increase gaps within society.
COVID-19’s impact on the hospitality workforce – new crisis or amplification of the norm?
Purpose. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the immediate impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the hospitality workforce in situ between mid-April and June 2020.
A step towards gender equity to strengthen the pharmaceutical workforce during COVID-19
There is plenty of evidence to support that women leaders are needed in the health and pharmaceutical sectors, although most of the leadership positions in global health are predominantly occupied by men.
Using Computer Vision to enhance Safety of Workforce in Manufacturing in a Post COVID World
The COVID-19 pandemic forced governments across the world to impose lockdowns to prevent virus transmissions. This resulted in the shutdown of all economic activity and accordingly the production at manufacturing plants across most sectors was halted. While there is an urgency to resume production, there is an even greater need to ensure the safety of the workforce at the plant site.
Props to you, Californians: A preview of what’s on your November ballot
After a bit of last-minute legislative maneuvering, the list of propositions that California voters will be asked to weigh in on has been — more or less — finalized.
Los Angeles County Minimum Wage Ordinance
Los Angeles City Minimum Wage Ordinance
For some California teens, school closures led to work in the fields
When the coronavirus pandemic interrupted education across the state, and classes shifted online, many teenage students went to work picking strawberries or other crops. Advocates worry they’re falling behind.
We have to get serious about protecting California farmworkers during COVID-19
With outbreaks of COVID-19 among migrant farmworkers across the country, California needs to better protect these essential workers. Here are some recommendations.
GETTING THROUGH IT
A Podcast to Help You Understand What’s Going on
Every week, Dr. Jones sits down to share her insights and perspective on the chaotic world around us on her podcast, Getting Through It, co-hosted with community resilience expert John Bwarie. The duo were co-creators of The Great Shake-Out and worked to create sweeping policy changes in seismic safety in the City of Los Angeles and dozens of other communities across California.
Child care is on the verge of collapse in the Bay Area. Can parents go back to work?
In some senses, Rockridge Little School has not changed since COVID-19 engulfed the Bay Area. Wooden blocks and cubbies still line the shelves. Small jackets still hang from the coat racks. Scraps of butcher paper from an unfinished art project lie scattered across the tables.
Hollywood Charges Forward With Production Plans Despite Virus Surge
Studios keep plotting a return to filming in states including California, New York, Georgia and Illinois as they hash out details of on-set COVID-19 protocols with the guilds.
Los Angeles County Economic Resiliency Task Force Comprehensive Report
Labor wins big on COVID workers’ comp
Essential workers who contract covid-19 get workers comp protection. Company behind collapsed mask deal under investigation. Hospitals are struggling.
After more coronavirus closures, how deep will California’s recession go?
Forget the notion of a V-shaped recovery. Unemployment leveled off around 16% in May, but a retreat to isolation and the end of some relief funds could lengthen the state’s economic recovery — and deepen inequality.
California gears up for blockbuster year of ballot measures
Expect fireworks throughout the fall as powerful interest groups compete for airtime and attention during an unprecedented presidential election in a pandemic year.
Newsom signals more protections coming for essential workers, including hotel rooms for farmworkers
The new program, which will rely mostly on federal money, will provide hotel rooms for agricultural workers who test positive or were exposed to the coronavirus so they can safely isolate.
Legislature Returns To Sacramento For Five-Week Lawmaking Sprint
California lawmakers are returning to work Monday for a furious five-week sprint that will include contentious debates about police brutality, unemployment benefits, hospital mergers and a moratorium on evictions during the coronavirus pandemic.
Gov. Gavin Newsom Hopes California Lawmakers Will Make Worker Protections Permanent
With state and federal worker assistance set to expire at the end of July, Gov. Gavin Newsom discussed efforts to extend protections for essential workers, but stopped short of further executive orders to lock in those measures.
Newsom: California on “the edge of a cliff” — more executive orders likely
With a series of temporary protections that helped Californians get through the first few months of the pandemic set to expire soon, Gov. Gavin Newsom hinted he will today extend some programs in another flex of executive power.
Legislature Returns To Sacramento For Five-Week Lawmaking Sprint
California lawmakers are returning to work Monday for a furious five-week sprint that will include contentious debates about police brutality, unemployment benefits, hospital mergers and a moratorium on evictions during the coronavirus pandemic.
Child Care Workers Weigh Historic Choice
Google extends work-from-home through June 2021 as coronavirus cases surge
Google will allow most employees to work from home through June 2021 as coronavirus infections surge, keeping one of the biggest workforces in tech and the Bay Area away from the office.
Enhanced unemployment would drop to $200 per week through September under new Senate proposal
One major section of the HEALS Act proposes a drop in enhanced unemployment benefits from the current $600 per week to a new $200 weekly boost, on top of state-administered aid, until the end of September.
HEALS Act Would Strip $90 Billion in Unemployment Payments, Crush 25+ Million Jobless Families
A plan proposed Monday by Senate Republicans, the HEALS Act, would lower the unemployment insurance (UI) weekly benefit supplement from $600 per week to $200 per week for the next two months, before capping payments at 70 percent of a worker’s prior income. A new analysis by Century Foundation researchers finds that, if enacted, the proposal would have devastating consequences for American families, businesses, and the economy.
Cutting UI benefits by $400 per week will significantly harm U.S. families, jobs, and growth
Currently Senate Republicans are offering a proposal to reduce this weekly $600 supplement to closer to $200. This is better than allowing the $600 benefit to go all the way to zero, but this would still lead to GDP that was lower by 2.5% a year from now, and, would lead to 3.4 million fewer jobs created over the next year.
If feds let jobless benefits drop, California Dems may “backdoor borrow” to extend them
California’s constitution requires a balanced budget, leaving the state few options to stimulate the economy or help people without jobs. Democrats, however, have found a loophole: “borrowing” federal dollars to continue benefits for the state’s unemployed.
“Old IT system” slows financial help for unemployed
Surge in unemployment claims plagued by old IT system. California’s coronavirus death model comes under scrutiny. All-mail election looks likely.
San Joaquin Valley company ‘encouraging’ COVID-19 infected employees to work, lawyer says
The company “disregarded inescapable evidence of rising infection levels among its workers,” the lawsuit says.
Google Extends WFH for a Year and CES Goes All-Digital
In Google’s case, extra cautious: Roughly 200,000 full-time and contract Googlers won’t be returning to the office until July 2021, the company said this week. Google is as data-driven as they come; I’d bet the search giant didn’t just rely on its gut to make this decision.
Governor Newsom Takes Action to Strengthen State Unemployment Insurance Delivery System
Today, Governor Gavin Newsom announced a series of actions to better serve workers that have experienced job loss during the COVID-19 pandemic, including the formation of an Employment Development Department (EDD) strike team, and a renewed focus on processing unpaid claims.
Filing for unemployment? Here’s how California is scrambling to respond
Missing checks. Marathon waits on hold. Mysterious financial penalties docked from payments that promise a lifeline amid extreme uncertainty. Welcome to the world of California unemployment benefits in the age of coronavirus.
New federal unemployment benefits could take as long as 20 weeks to process, California EDD head says
Amid a testy oversight hearing Thursday afternoon, Employment Development Department head Sharon Hilliard said California could take as long as 20 weeks to process any additional federal employment benefits once they come.
That’s because of what Hilliard calls an “antiquated” system for processing these claims, one that hasn’t yet been modernized.
Should I quit my job? California parents grapple with education in a pandemic
As the majority of schools across the state prepare to start the school year teaching remotely, parents have started investigating their options for how they can maintain their child’s education while still holding down a job.
Unemployment department under fire
With federal unemployment benefits of $600 per week set to expire today and nearly 1 million claims backlogged at California’s unemployment department, millions of Californians are teetering on the edge of a financial cliff — and increasingly desperate for answers from elected officials.
Shutdown of Marathon’s Martinez Refinery Prompts Calls for ‘Just Transition’ for Oil Workers
Elected officials, union leaders, industry representatives and environmentalists are expressing concern about the hundreds of workers set to lose their jobs at California's fourth-largest refinery in the coming months.
Side hustles, liquidating 401(k)s: Here’s how jobless Californians are getting by without the extra $600
While Republicans and Democrats disagree whether President Trump’s executive order for $400-a-week enhanced unemployment benefits will work, pressure mounts for both parties to act. Without an expired federal $600 weekly boost, unemployed Californians are living on the brink by making candy and emptying out their 401(k)s.
In Health-Conscious Marin County, Virus Runs Rampant Among Latino Essential Workers
On a warm evening in late June, people flocked to alfresco tables set up along San Rafael's main drag to sip sauvignon blanc and eat wood-oven pizza for Dining Under the Lights, an event to welcome Marin County residents back to one of their favorite pastimes.
About a mile away, Crisalia Calderon was hunkered down in her apartment facing a sleepless night as she grappled with the early symptoms of COVID-19.
Many workers don’t get new paid sick leave, because of ‘broad’ exemption for providers, report finds
A government watchdog said in a report out Tuesday that the Labor Department “significantly broadened” an exemption allowing millions of health-care workers to be denied paid sick leave as part of the law Congress passed in March to help workers during the coronavirus pandemic.
Will the executive order on payroll taxes impact Social Security?
The Verify team spoke with experts to answer some of the most pressing questions, relating to the new executive order on payroll taxes.
A Simple Way to Think About Trump’s Confusing Covid Orders
Over the weekend, President Donald Trump issued several new executive orders aimed at extending the Covid-19 economic stimulus that has offered some financial relief to millions of Americans. But instead of bringing clarity, the orders have generated a raft of confusion. Are they even constitutional? Will they go into effect?
Trump signs executive orders enacting $400 unemployment benefit, payroll tax cut after coronavirus stimulus talks stall
With stimulus talks with Congress at an impasse, President Donald Trump signed a series of executive orders on Saturday to provide temporary relief to Americans who are suffering from the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
From elevator etiquette to break room buddies, your burning questions about a return to work
For workers fortunate enough to have been working remotely during the pandemic amid historic layoffs, thoughts about a return to the workplace are not just centered around plexiglass dividers, sanitizer dispensers, and separated workstations.
Democrats divided: Newsom’s family-leave plan faces resistance from his own party
The pandemic has revealed a schism between progressive Democrats and moderates, wrestling with the needs of hard-hit businesses and working parents and caregivers.
California unemployment agency investigating potential widespread fraud
California lawmakers said Wednesday that there is growing evidence of possible widespread fraud in the state’s unemployment benefits system, and the agency in charge confirmed it is investigating whether people have filed dozens of bogus claims during the COVID-19 pandemic.