Frontline Workers To Join Lawmakers In Call For COVID-19 Emergency Paid Leave

By Gracie Stockton, the Minnesota Reformer

January 28, 2021

Frontline essential workers are joining with the House Labor Committee in a bill calling for broader COVID-19 emergency paid leave.

House lawmakers are proposing to close loopholes in a federal law that provides paid leave to frontline workers who contract COVID-19 or have to care for family members who fall ill with the coronavirus.

State Rep. Cedrick Frazier, DFL-New Hope, is sponsoring a measure that would apply to essential workers not covered by the federal Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA), like grocery store chains with more than 500 employees.

Currently, the act allows for 80 hours of pay and 80 hours at two-thirds regular pay, or four weeks of paid leave for those quarantining, taking care of sick family members, or helping children with distance learning.

“I have personally lost over 84 hours of personal time,” said Sara Buchanan, a registered nurse. Buchanan has had to quarantine because she was exposed to a COVID-positive patient. She has also stayed home to take care of her children with COVID symptoms, and her husband, also an essential worker, contracted COVID-19.

Like many Minnesotans, she has also had to help her children with distance learning. Much of that time has come out of her own pocket, and she has never tested positive for COVID.

“Losing that much income is emotionally, mentally, physically and financially exhausting,” she said.

Gov. Tim Walz on Tuesday proposed funding for emergency paid leave and wants to raise the existing requirements to 12 weeks of paid leave for people with serious medical conditions, those caring for a family member, or with a new child.

Norma Medina, who is a janitor, has a disabled husband with diabetes. The situation has gotten “very difficult” as she tries to keep her family safe, she said.

Last summer, one of her coworkers died from COVID-19, and two others have been hospitalized and needed intubation. Out of the 18 employees she works with, half have had to quarantine.

Medina had COVID-19 in July, and her family had to pull together “what little they were earning to pay for rent and food.” She only received five days of unemployment support despite a 15-day quarantine.

“The word ‘heroes’ is an empty gesture,” said state Sen. Erin Murphy, DFL-St. Paul. “It is a cold comfort, if we don’t back it up with action.”

The Minnesota Reformer is an independent, nonprofit news organization dedicated to keeping Minnesotans informed and unearthing stories other outlets can’t or won’t tell..