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John,

We can’t afford to wait any longer. Lives have been lost. The Senate must come together to pass COVID-19 relief legislation now.

For months, America’s workers have been risking their lives and the lives of their loved ones by going into workplaces without enforceable safety measures.

The House has passed the HEROES Act and its less robust version to provide relief to those impacted by the coronavirus outbreak. We urge Senate leaders to pass legislation that includes protections for workers in the midst of a pandemic.

Tell your senators to pass COVID-19 relief legislation today.

Here are our priorities included in the original bill and some provisions we are still fighting for:

  1. Premium Pay

Premium pay for employees whose duties, work setting, and interaction with the public place them in danger of contracting COVID-19, and make the pay retroactive to January 27, 2020 when the national emergency went into effect. The slimmed-down version of HEROES passed in September did not include premium pay.

  1. Automatic presumption of Worksite Illness

Employees who must interact with the public, who have been quarantined, or who have been diagnosed with COVID-19 during the performance of their duties should be given a presumption that they contracted the virus at work. This would help expedite approval of workers’ compensation claims.

  1. Telework

Agency leaders should allow telework for all eligible federal employees during the coronavirus pandemic. Agencies would be required to expand telework by creating incentives to increase its use and disincentives to reducing it.

  1. Universal Testing

$75 billion for coronavirus testing, contact tracing, and isolation measures.

  1. Additional Personal Protective Equipment

Amplified production and distribution of personal protective equipment and other supplies and requires the administration to seek input from labor organizations and other stakeholders.

  1. Paid Leave Clarifications

Clarification that federal employees will not be excluded from the paid leave provisions previously passed by Congress and that Transportation Security Officers and health-care workers at the Department of Veterans Affairs are entitled to the additional two weeks of paid sick leave.

  1. OSHA Emergency Standard

Implementation of a Labor Department Occupational Safety and Health Administration emergency temporary standard to protect front-line employees from exposure to COVID-19.

  1. Funding for the District of Columbia

Treat the District of Columbia as a state for the purposes of funding for prevention, treatment and recovery, and retroactive payments under that status for funds provided in the Coronavirus Relief Fund in the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act.

Tell the Senate to pass COVID-19 relief legislation now, and do what is right for our health, our economy and our country.


Thank you for all you do!

In Solidarity,

AFGE

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