Dear Friends,

It’s an undisputed fact, that COVID-19 has forever changed the world as we know it. It has changed the way we interact, the way we shop, how we travel, how we work, how our children go to school, how we seek medical attention, how we function as a society.

Not only has this pandemic changed us as individuals, but it has forever changed how our businesses operate. Virtual meetings, remote workers, spaced out desks, extra cleaning, special PTO, policies on travel, quarantine rules, COVID testing, the list goes on and on. This pandemic has left many of our businesses (both small and large) bruised, broken and in many cases closed forever.

Why, then, has our NYS elected officials chosen to pass a law, masked under the word “hero” to make things even harder for our business owners? Why would they choose to pass a law that not only makes the NYS guidelines for COVID a permanent part of their structure, but has now given employees the ability to hold their employer liable?

Listen, I know that the workforce has had to endure a lot. I also know that not every business out there is being 100 percent compliant. I hear it all the time, our department of health hears about it, and we do our best between the Control Room and our partners at ESD to address it.

However, most of our businesses have been compliant. Most have taken drastic measures, even beyond the “basic requirements” to ensure their employees safety. They have been more than reasonable with quarantines, contact tracing, positive cases, mask compliance, and creating structures to ensure that their employees are safe. In fact, to be an open and operational business in NYS, you must read the industry guidelines, certify that you will be compliant and follow or your business can be faced with fines, closing, and additional reprimands.

So, with this structure already in place, why do we need to make this a law? Why, are we taking drastic measures to create a forever law, for something that may not be a problem indefinitely?

Yes, I said in the beginning of this that we know COVID will be a problem for a long time. However, I don’t believe it will rise to the level we saw a year ago. Now that we know what we are dealing with, we have structures in place, and we have a vaccine.

If Governor Cuomo signs the “Heroes Act” into law, we will solidify the COVID-19 requirements – created to address COVID-19 - forever. These restrictions and guidelines were put into place (for a good reason), to address an airborne pathogen that we had no control over, no idea how to slow it down, and at the time had no cure. That is not the case anymore.

To make this a law and to give employees the ability to sue their employers over it is just too much. New York State is already the hardest state in the country to do business in. Those of us in economic development have to work twice as hard to attract businesses to our state. We entice industry to come, despite the lack of broadband, lack of public transportation, high taxes, and micromanagement of our government. This “Heroes Act” will make our jobs even harder.

Overall, businesses are doing everything they can to ensure the safety of their employees. Most are being 100% compliant. Creating a law to address those few bad apples is not fair to those who have been doing what has been required and then some, all along.

Do I think we need some harsher punishments for businesses who have refused to comply? Yes. Do I think that our Departments of Health need a bigger hammer when dealing with non-compliance? Absolutely. Does this mean we need a permanent law to address this? No.

Transmission of COVID is not happening at the workplace. The majority of cases have been from individuals who make personal choices not to adhere to the protocols that are in place, and contracting the virus. Not only are the legislators making these requirements a law, but providing employees with the ability to sue their employer with the burden of proof on the employer. Our business owners have dealt with so much this past year. This is too much.

I have been working with my colleagues from the NFIB on this issue for months. In fact, we spent a good part of Small Business Advocacy Day, only weeks ago, speaking with our elected officials on this topic. During our 3-day event, we spoke at length about why this proposed legislation would hurt NYS businesses. Overwhelmingly, those legislators we spoke with said that they understood and would join us to fight for our businesses. Imagine our surprise when we found out that this quickly, and quietly, passed last week, and comments were made that they “had never heard from the business community” about this.

Since we know that this proposed legislation is days or hours from arriving on the Governor’s desk, we are asking that Governor Cuomo consider some chapter amendments.

First, make this act applicable only during a declared state of emergency. Meaning employers would be required to adopt a plan and communicate to employees in case of a future state of emergency.

Second, eliminate Workplace Safety Committees. If this can’t be eliminated, then limit the committee to engagement on airborne pathogen standards only – not all workplace safety issues. And, to increase the threshold of businesses required to have a safety committee from 10 employees to 50 employees; there should be one safety committee per employer, not per workplace.

Finally, we need to eliminate the Private Right of Action. If this can’t be eliminated completely, then eliminate liquidated damages and provide a 90-day cure period for businesses to correct the violation before a lawsuit can move forward.

Either our advocacy efforts fell on deaf ears, or there were other reasons why this harmful legislation was pushed through. The proposed amendments would help soften the blow of this overreaching mandate, we just hope it’s not too late to get our voices heard and needs addressed.

In my column a few weeks ago I talked about Heroes, superpowers, and the ability to fight for ourselves. The “Hero Act” leaves our vulnerable businesses unprotected and gives unnecessary power to those who would seek to exploit it.

Heroes are supposed to protect the innocent. The “Hero Act” falls short of doing this, and I fear the real villain is yet to be unmasked.

Be well, Chenango.

~ Kerri