Our friends at the Heath Professionals and Allied Employees (HPAE) are asking for our help. These New Jersey and federal measures are the LEAST WE CAN DO to protect our healthcare workers and other essential workers as they work for and protect us. Please take a few minutes to reach out to your elected representatives to tell them we must enact Essential Worker protections.
State Level
Bill S.2380 / A.3999
The legislation which has passed in the Senate, would provide essential workers, including healthcare workers, who have contracted COVID-19 with presumptive eligibility for certain benefits, such as disability and workers' compensation benefits.
Action
Contact your two members of the NJ Assembly to ask for their support for A.3999. To find your state legislators: https://www.njleg.state.nj.us/districts/municipalities.asp
Bill S.2384 / A.4129
The legislation has yet to advance in both houses. The bill will require health care facilities to report data on healthcare workers and first responders who have tested positive and fallen ill with COVID-19 and the number of those workers who lost their lives to the virus. In addition the Department will produce a report to the Governor and the legislature with recommendation to reduce the risk of exposure to healthcare workers based on data collected during the current pandemic outbreak.
Action
Contact your State Senator and your two members of the NJ Assembly to ask for their support for S.2389/A.4129. To find your state legislators: https://www.njleg.state.nj.us/districts/municipalities.asp
Federal Level
Bill H.R. 6559
This bill requires the Department of Labor to promulgate both an emergency temporary occupational safety or health standard and a permanent standard to protect certain employees from occupational exposure to the coronavirus (i.e., the virus that causes COVID-19). These standards apply to health care sector employees, paramedic and emergency medical services employees, and other employees identified as having an elevated risk for exposure. Further, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention must collect and make public information regarding employee exposure in these occupations and provide guidance to further protect such employees.
Here is a fact sheet from Committee on Education & Labor.
Action
H.R. 6559, The COVID-19 Every Worker Protection Act of 2020, was included in the HEROES Act of 2020 and has now passed the House of Representatives. Contact Senators Robert Menendez (202) 224-4744 and Cory Booker (202) 224-3224 to ask their help in getting this protection through the U.S. Senate and making it law.