When Bridget Tran arrived Wednesday morning at the Rodeo Drive boutique where she works as a sales associate, she was nervous.
Smoke from multiple wildfires raging across Los Angeles County billowed overhead. An upscale shopping district that is usually crowded with tourists has turned into a ghost town.
Tran’s co-workers texted their bosses to let them know that nearby stores had closed and described the acrid smoke in the air. But the woman at her Orange County home didn’t seem to understand their concerns. “We have no intention of closing unless the mall tells us to close,” she replied.
Tran, who asked that the name of her employer not be disclosed for fear of professional repercussions, grew more anxious as time went on. Around 3 p.m., she and two other employees who were working that day rebelled. They packed their bags, told security to go home and locked the doors hours before closing time.
As wildfires rage across Los Angeles County, choking the air, closing schools and forcing tens of thousands of people to evacuate, employers and employees alike are finding the difficult balance between work and well-being. There is a need to manage. Some employers responded quickly to the crisis, closing offices and transitioning to remote work, providing masks and other protective equipment to outdoor workers, and providing assistance to displaced employees. did. There are also employees who are not very good communicators, clumsy, or simply unmoved by employee concerns, resulting in employee anger.
Jonathan Porter, a meteorologist with private weather forecasting company AccuWeather, said the fires highlighted the need for businesses to have clear plans for responding to emergencies. He said its duties go beyond just monitoring whether offices are in evacuation zones. For example, as the current tragedy unfolds, companies are recognizing “the large amount of dangerous smoke in the air” and providing outdoor workers with high-quality respirators or keeping them away from polluted air. You need to be prepared.
Some employers have given their employees flexibility. For example, Santa Monica-based Snap Inc., the developer of the photo-messaging app Snapchat, said its offices remained open Wednesday but encouraged employees to work remotely, a company spokesperson said.
Some changed their policies after responding to criticism.
The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) announcement that its campus would remain open for classes and regular business on Wednesday drew the ire of some instructors and students on social media.
Victor Naro, project director of the UCLA Labor Center and a lecturer on campus, said in a post on X that he intends to defy UCLA’s order and hold optional classes online.
“Students have been up all night panicking about sleeping despite evacuation orders, and the winds are still strong, with tree branches falling across Westwood and power outages across the city. And our new prime minister (on his second day in office) thought this should be his first bold decision…” said Noor Judah, assistant professor in the UCLA Department of Asian American Studies. wrote in another X post.
That night, UCLA recanted and announced it would close its campus.
On Saturday, UCLA President Julio Frenk issued a statement saying classes will be held remotely and campus operations will be reduced for at least another week. “We ask for continued flexibility and understanding as we all navigate this difficult time,” Frank wrote.
But for many workers, the turmoil of recent days has left them feeling like they have to take matters into their own hands.
Tim Hernandez, a driver for Amazon Flex, an on-demand Uber-like program that allows people to use their own cars to deliver packages, drove into Malibu on Tuesday along the often-closed Pacific Coast Highway. I was assigned a route to take.
When I asked if the delivery was safe, I was brushed off by a delivery person at the Amazon facility in Camarillo, either out of concern for safety or because my reputation on the Flex app would be hurt if I refused the delivery. He said he had no choice but to make a choice. He decided to try his hand at delivery, battling gusts of wind that at one point knocked him over. However, he loses cell phone signal and is forced to return to the warehouse without completing much of the work.
And when he arrived for work Tuesday, Amazon delivery driver Alfredo Muñoz, 43, who works at a warehouse in the industrial city, said he was given an N95 mask but had little other instructions. .
“It was business as usual,” Munoz said.
This week the job has become even more difficult due to the large number of packages and the number of stops on the assigned route. On Tuesday, they had to make about 180 stops and deliver 290 packages because gusts of wind blew debris and made it difficult to see. He was carrying more than 300 packages Thursday as the air was thick with smoke and ash.
I woke up Thursday morning with a bloody nose and sooty black scabs forming at the corners of my eyes.
In response to a request for comment, Amazon spokeswoman Montana McLachlan said the company is “closely monitoring wildfires across Southern California and adjusting our operations to keep our employees and delivery partners safe.”
“If a driver arrives at a delivery location and conditions are not safe for them to make a delivery, they are not expected to make the delivery and there is no impact on their performance,” she said.
At the Brentwood branch of the popular Italian restaurant John & Vinnie’s, staff members complained of headaches and sore throats in a text message group chat. One employee, who requested anonymity for fear of workplace retaliation, said Tuesday that employees were huddled around iPads and spread out fire maps to keep an eye on the expanding evacuation zone. The glow of the Palisades fires could be seen from the front of the restaurant.
The employee said he was frustrated that management kept the restaurant open even though the mandatory evacuation zone border was only two blocks away. The employee said he received calls Wednesday saying all the servers that were supposed to be working were not coming.
A spokesperson for Joint Venture Restaurant Group, which owns John & Vinny’s, did not respond to a request for comment.
Employer choices can mean the difference between life and death during natural disasters and extreme weather events, said David Michaels, a professor at the Milken Institute School of Public Health and former assistant secretary of labor for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. .
He noted that several employees at a plastics manufacturing company were killed in recent flooding from Hurricane Helen. The tragedy has drawn intense scrutiny from state investigators, and a wrongful death lawsuit accuses the company of requiring employees to stay on site during flooding after they asked for permission to leave.
“It’s the employer’s duty to ensure the safety of their workers,” Michaels said. “Employee safety must take precedence over business concerns.”
Yasya Tainović, 48, a driver for ride-hailing app Lyft and food delivery platform DoorDash, is more worried about lost revenue than workplace safety. He said many restaurants and other businesses are closed and potential customers are fleeing the city, slowing down rides and deliveries. Traffic patterns are strange and unpredictable, with families piled into cars to escape the fire.
Timunovich, who was evicted Wednesday night from his Hollywood apartment with his fiance and 6-year-old daughter, plans to stay with relatives in San Luis Obispo for a few days, where he hopes business will improve. He said he hopes so.
“This fire is so bad that we’re going to get out of here,” Timunovic said.
Source link
