Risk coronavirus or forfeit unemployment benefits? Texas workers face tough decision
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to include additional comments and reflect the store is a licensed location.
Cherish Maynard got the call Tuesday afternoon that in two days, she would have to go back to work.
The Grand Prairie mall she works at decided it would be partially reopening amid the novel coronavirus’ outbreak. And as the general manager of a licensed Starbucks store there, Maynard would have to be the first to go in Thursday to begin the process of cleaning the store that had been closed for nearly a month, placing orders for milk and coffee and figuring out which of her 22 employees would be able — and willing — to return to work at reduced hours.
But more than work was on her mind.
Returning to the store and interacting with customers could put her at greater risk of contracting the novel coronavirus, which she worried she might then bring to her home in Euless and her 4- and 9-year-old sons. But money has been tight, bills still need to be paid and even though her last day of work was April 4, she hadn’t received her first check for unemployment benefits until last week. It was $1,009.
And under Texas’ unemployment benefits system, turning down the opportunity to go back to work could put Maynard at risk of losing that support altogether. She loves her job, but is apprehensive about the risks.
“If I don’t go to work after my job told me to go back, my unemployment gets cut off, and then I don’t make any money at all,” Maynard said. “So there’s no choice in the matter. When they tell you to go, you got to go.”
Maynard is one of the many Texans who work in restaurants and retail stores who face difficult decisions if their employers choose to reopen at a limited capacity starting Friday.
Gov. Greg Abbott announced Monday that as part of a phased reopening of Texas businesses, restaurants, retail stores, movie theaters, malls, libraries, museums and more could begin operating at 25% capacity. Some Fort Worth business owners said they will reopen out of necessity, as the virus has rocked the economy, forcing businesses to close and leading to record job losses and claims for unemployment insurance.
And Abbott had stressed that while his executive order allowed businesses to reopen — it doesn’t require they do so.
“You have every right to choose your own pathway in life, and you have ultimate control over your own personal safety, and you should use that control,” Abbott said. “And so, if you feel like you don’t want to get out and potentially expose yourself, just continue to stay home.”
But that’s not a simple choice for employees like Maynard, who have been receiving unemployment benefits while their workplaces have closed.
Among the requirements to be eligible to receive unemployment benefits, workers must be both able and available “to accept any suitable full-time work,” according to the Texas Workforce Commission’s website.
“Under longstanding TWC policy, previously if an employer offered an individual a job and they refused the job offer without good cause the employee would not be eligible for unemployment insurance benefits,” Cisco Gamez, a spokesman for the Texas Workforce Commission, wrote in an email late Tuesday night.
Gamez said the agency is reassessing what falls under “good cause” in light of the pandemic — a policy that organizations and labor advocates called on the commission to adjust Wednesday.
“Recognizing this current, extraordinary situation, TWC is reevaluating good cause situations that take into consideration the governor’s direction towards reopening the economy,” Gamez wrote.
And in a Wednesday afternoon briefing on Facebook, Gamez said benefits would not automatically be cut off for people not returning to work, and that guidelines would be issued soon.
However, in a webinar Thursday, attorneys for the Texas Workforce Commission said employers could report to the agency’s fraud department workers who choose not to return in order to keep receiving unemployment benefits.
“When you email the fraud department we will investigate to see if the offer of work was offered and if it was suitable. And if it was, then they could be disqualified from receiving unemployment benefits thereafter,” said Velissa Chapa, legal counsel to Texas Workforce Commissioner Aaron Demerson, who represents employers.
Chapa encouraged employers to submit written proof that the employee was notified about measures to create a safe working environment, in addition to a written offer of work.
“The Department of Labor, and Texas state leadership have made it clear — and the TWC is four square behind them — that if somebody refuses an offer of suitable work just to stay on unemployment benefits, that person is at risk of being disqualified from further benefit payments. And it’s because those benefits are very special but also very costly and they should be devoted to people who truly need them — and those are the people who don’t have a job,” said Tommy Simmons, who is also legal counsel to Demerson.
In a Wednesday letter, nearly a dozen organizations, including Texas AFL-CIO, the Texas American Federation of Teachers and United Ways of Texas, requested the commission issue emergency rules to clarify that “suitable work” include consideration of an individual’s health conditions, age and risk factors, in addition to whether the necessary equipment, training and supplies is provided to employees to prevent infection.
The letter also specifically requested that the commission allow voluntarily leaving work for COVID-19-related reasons to be included under its definition of “good cause.”
“People need to determine whether they feel safe in the workplace and that there’s proper protection provided to them, and if not, they should not be penalized for not accepting returning to work,” said Jonathan Lewis, a senior policy analyst with the Center For Public Policy Priorities, an Austin-based think tank that was among the organizations that signed Wednesday’s letter.
The letter asks that the considerations remain in effect for six months after Abbott’s declaration of a state of disaster expires.
Meanwhile as groups seek greater protection for workers, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said on a tele-town hall Tuesday that he discussed with the White House granting blanket immunity for businesses so they can be “getting customers back and not getting sued” if workers or customers contract COVID-19 or are denied service for having symptoms.
For Maynard, who heads back to work Thursday, the adjustments for employees sound like a wonderful idea. But she also doesn’t know if her employer would hold her position that long before needing to find another store manager to fill in.
Starting Monday, her Starbucks location will be open seven days a week — and she anticipates needing to have to work most of them to help keep costs down.
Of her 22 employees, she may be able to have enough hours available to bring back five or six of them. But as of Wednesday, only three had said they would be ready to come back, because they haven’t received their unemployment benefits yet.
And the primary concern on her employees’ minds: their safety. Some of their first questions were whether they would be given masks, what kind, if customers’ temperatures would be checked at the door and how they would monitor who is sick, Maynard said.
Because of the restrictions on operating capacity, only eight people will be allowed in the store at a time — and that includes employees. The store will also be operating at reduced hours, from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays, and 12-6 p.m. Sundays.
“How do you expect us to run a business at 75% less than we normally do?” Maynard said, worrying about if they will make a profit. “That’s 75% less customers we get. We still have 100% of the bills to pay.”
Before the store closed in late March, Maynard already required her employees to wash their hands every 10 minutes when a timer went off, (“You have some pretty dry hands by the end,” Maynard said) and starting next week there will also be masks and gloves for all of her workers.
But she worries about customers who may come in feeling sick or choose not to wear a face mask. She hopes they’ll be considerate and patient with her employees, who are putting themselves at risk to be there.
“We don’t have the kind of job that says we can stay home. I can’t make people Frappuccinos from my kitchen,” Maynard said. “So at the end of the day, I have to go to work and I have to go be the guinea pigs for you guys to be able to fully go back to work later. And it’s scary, it really is.”
This story was originally published April 30, 2020 at 6:00 AM.
