Taking Care of the Workforce: Boards can help keep employees healthy and safe.

• Author: Milford, Maureen
• Position: EYES FORWARD: Human Capital

In 2020, directors talked about employee safety, health and mental wellness more than ever before, and many say they are glad the "stigma" surrounding these issues is being pushed aside in favor of action. Since 2021 began with a still-record number of COVID-19 cases plus political unrest in the Capitol and around the country, boards will have to continue to support management on matters of employee health.

Consider what Amazon.com, Inc. encountered at the end of the year, just as the first COVID-19 vaccinations were rolled out.

Xavier Becerra, then-California attorney general and the nominee for U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services at press time, petitioned the state superior court to order Amazon to comply with subpoenas in an investigation into the company's coronavirus protocols and COVID-19 cases at its facilities across the state. Demonstrators protested the company's pandemic working conditions, including a march on CEO Jeff Bezos' Beverly Hills mansion.

"Amazon has made billions during this pandemic relying on the labor of essential workers. Their workers get the job done while putting themselves at risk," Becerra said in a statement. "It's critical to know if these workers are receiving the protections on the job that they are entitled to under the law."

In response, Amazon said in December that the company has implemented 150 process updates, including enhanced cleaning and social distancing. The same month, it also temporarily shut down one of its warehouses in New Jersey because of rising asymptomatic COVID-19 cases, according to news reports.

Amazon's plight could be a warning signal for directors in 2021 as employees acknowledge workplace struggles not experienced in modern times. Large numbers of workers report burnout, fears of getting sick, disengagement from work, financial burdens and mental health issues. More than one in five employees say the pandemic has greatly or very greatly threatened some parts of their jobs, according to a Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) survey on the impact of COVID-19 on mental health.

"State and federal regulators and prosecutors, I anticipate, are likely to step up their actions against company practices that fall short in protecting employees during the COVID-19 crisis," says Michael Useem, a professor of management at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. "[This is] partly because more employees are affected as the pandemic spreads, partly because of the political winds in the wake of the presidential election and partly because companies themselves are being urged by big business leaders to give greater attention to employee health and safety, as called for by The Business Roundtable statement on stakeholder capitalism in 2019."

The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration issued scores of citations to employers for coronavirus-related violations by Dec. 3, resulting in more than $3.5 million in proposed penalties. Employers were cited for such things as not installing plastic barriers, not ensuring social distancing and failing to report an illness. As of Jan. 8, more than 7,000 COVID-19-related complaints had been filed, with the largest number in New York, California, Texas and Florida, according to the COVID-19 Complaint Tracker database of state and federal litigation by Hunton Andrews Kurth. Nearly 1,200 complaints are related to labor and employment matters.

Despite the lawsuits and regulatory actions, directors appear to be meeting their duty of care to oversee employee health and safety head on, however workers' criticisms of companies' operations and performance can be found easily on the internet. Good governance practice dictates that management should report to the board what systems are in place to ensure workplace safety and employee well-being and regularly update the full board or appropriate committee on those processes, says one corporate lawyer who did not want to be named.

This reporting could fall under the Caremark International...