Lack of paid sick time an issue for Northeast Ohio workers during omicron surge

The coronavirus has upended lives and livelihoods since being declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization on March 11, 2020. 

As we approach the two-year mark of that declaration, the virus continues to surge.  Now it is the omicron variant of the virus that is driving case numbers. But unlike 2020 when there was a flurry of actions to help people navigate the crisis, here in 2022 that help is in the rearview mirror.

Millions of workers still have no paid sick leave and incentives for employers to provide paid time off for COVID-19 have gone away. That means workers having to choose whether to go to work sick or stay home and go unpaid and/or possibly risk losing a job. The difficult choices are falling disproportionately on lower earning workers who largely do not receive paid sick time.

It is just one way that the pandemic continues to shape not only the workplace but also our relationship with work. It is a changed landscape that employment law experts say will exist after the pandemic ends with work from home much more pervasive. Likewise, after the pandemic which has required many employees to alert their workplace on virus exposure and testing outcomes as well as vaccine status,  experts say employees may have less robust health privacy protections going forward.

Mandates in Ohio aimed at controlling the pandemic were lifted in June of 2021.  The omicron surge arrived in Ohio as schools, colleges and universities were returning from winter and holiday break.

Districts and colleges and universities are deciding how best to protect their students and staff.  This has led to a varied response from remote learning, mask mandates, and requirements for testing and vaccines.

The past and the legacies of Cleveland Metropolitan School building namesakes are the focus of a working group in the district. Several schools in the district have been identified as having namesakes with associations to slavery or to the oppression of people of color, women or minority groups.  The focus group will hear from the public about whether to change the names of the school buildings.

• Ann-Marie Ahern, Head of Employment Law, Principal, McCarthy, Lebit, Crystal, & Liffman 
• Dan O'Malley, Executive Secretary, North Shore AFL-CIO & President, Lakewood City Council  
• Camilo Villa, SEIU Local 1
• Jenny Hamel, Education Reporter, Ideastream Public Media