For employees who do not feel empowered to speak up, solving workers’ rights issues can be difficult, especially when they fear job and wage loss due to the pandemic. Today, the Boulder County Cultural Brokers Resilience Program will host a presentation on labor laws and workers’ rights.
The event is presented by the Community Engagement and Resource Navigation Team, the Economic Vitality Team, and the Racial Equity Practitioners of Boulder County's Pandemic Response and Recovery Organization, or PRRO, in partnership with the Towards Justice Organization, according to an email announcement.
The event will provide a baseline of the rules and safeguards in place for community members being impacted by COVID-19 in the workplace, according to Nick Robles bilingual COVID-19 resource coordinator at Boulder County Public Health and event co-host.
“Our staff, who serve in the role of contact tracers and resource navigators, are continuing to hear from our community that there are challenges and fears of the loss of wages or loss of employment for missing work,” he said. “Even when workers have had symptoms or have been diagnosed with or were exposed to COVID.”
From 12:30 to 1:30 p.m., Attorney Valerie Collins from Towards Justice will address the complexities of workers’ rights and will provide information on bilingual resources for employers and employees, Robles said.
“Our goal is to protect the health and safety of our community and that means… ensuring that people who have COVID or have been exposed to COVID can stay safely away from others for the recommended amount of time,” he said. “It also means that when our community members take those important quarantine and isolation steps to protect us all, that they do not suffer (financially) or any other hardship or negative repercussion because of it.”
Within the Latinx community, and especially among those with complex immigration situations, there is much fear related to advocating for one’s paid leave or bringing up workplace safety or payroll concerns with employers, according to Robles.
Rosy Quiroz has been working as a case manager with El Comité de Longmont, an organization working to improve social justice, education and economic status for members of the community, for over two years.
Throughout the pandemic, she has seen many clients coming through her office seeking support and guidance to address workplace issues related to COVID-19.
"I was working with many people who were testing positive for COVID and they were not getting paid or they (employers) were scaring them saying that if they tested positive, they could report them to immigration," she said.
Early in the pandemic, this was a common concern people would communicate with the organization, she said, and although the instances of related issues have decreased, it is one of the most concerning aspects for the Latinx community locally.
Looking back at her notes, Quiroz recorded complaints from El Comite clients residing in the Longmont area against over 50 employers, she said.
Over 40 of the employers were located in Weld County, including many in the construction, oil and gas and cleaning industries and a handful of complaints also came from people working in factories in Loveland, CO, according to Quiroz.
Ten of the employers were businesses located in Boulder County, four of which were landscaping companies located in Longmont.
"I used to tell (the clients)... it doesn't matter your status, you have rights, it doesn't matter if you worked only two hours, they have to pay you," she said.
Quiroz recalls the story of a client, who resides in Longmont and tested positive for COVID-19. This woman’s supervisor threatened to have her fired if she missed work.
“She and her partner got sick and then the whole family got sick, and she lost her father due to COVID… her story touched the hearts of all of us at El Comite,” she said. "She told me that up to that point, she did not believe in COVID, until it hit home."
Throughout the past 12 months, a significant fraction of Quiroz’s work has entailed advocating on behalf of her Latinx and Spanish-speaking clients, she said. She explains to and reminds employers, across surrounding counties, of the labor laws that protect all workers.
“I called her (the client’s) employer, talked to the supervisor ... I explained that if they make her go to work, she could report it to the health department, and from then on, their whole attitude changed. She continues to work with that same employer. People have to know that they cannot just get fired, it is illegal for them to fire you for testing positive (for COVID),” Quiroz said.
Cecilia Jones, racial equity project manager at the Boulder County Office of the County Administrator and event co-host, says members of communities of color, including Black and Latinx people, represent a high portion of frontline or essential workers. This contributes to the disproportionate infection rates these communities have seen throughout the pandemic.
In contrast to white frontline workers, Latino, Black and Native American workers are overrepresented in jobs that put them at higher risk for the virus and often with less adequate protections, according to research on racial and ethnic disparities in COVID-19-related job exposure.
Jones said these workplace discrepancies have led to many incidences of violations to workers’ rights. It also has brought forward the need to share information about labor laws with community members and service providers.
“It is important that the different resources that exist in the community are openly offered and openly communicated to people whenever they are knocking on a door or calling for information,” she said. "The issue of labor rights is part of this."
Community members must also be aware of their rights when it comes to getting a COVID-19 vaccine, she said.
"What are the worker's rights if the employer is conditioning his working hours by whether they get or don’t get the vaccine, or if requesting time during working hours to get the vaccine is allowed," she said. "All these issues must be communicated to the community in general and to the people who are serving the community."
Editor's note: the original article stated that Cecilia Jones worked as the business services representative at Workforce Boulder County.
