Compensation and Benefits

[Janice Miller]

Hello all,

I’m pulling out the related compensation and benefit conversation in the general COVID 19 Prevention and Response Topic:

The YWCA’s “Infectious Disease Outbreak Policy” has this wonderful language around staff salaries.  They have given me permission to share it here:

“Continuation of Salary and Benefits:
The YWCA is committed to the financial stability of team members. It is the intention of
the organization to provide compensation for the first five (5) business days that facilities
may be closed and will continue to provide compensation contingent on availability
and authorization of funding. It is the intention of the YWCA for paychecks to continue
being distributed via direct deposit; contingent to access to banking. For team
members to be eligible, they must have worked immediately preceding the closure
and return at the end of the closure. They must have access to a telecommuting
device, participate in all virtual meetings and complete assigned work.”

Hello all,

The YWCA’s “Infectious Disease Outbreak Policy” has this wonderful language around staff salaries.  They have given me permission to share it here:

“Continuation of Salary and Benefits:
The YWCA is committed to the financial stability of team members. It is the intention of
the organization to provide compensation for the first five (5) business days that facilities
may be closed and will continue to provide compensation contingent on availability
and authorization of funding. It is the intention of the YWCA for paychecks to continue
being distributed via direct deposit; contingent to access to banking. For team
members to be eligible, they must have worked immediately preceding the closure
and return at the end of the closure. They must have access to a telecommuting
device, participate in all virtual meetings and complete assigned work.”

[Janice Miller]

From the other thread, Joanne Sharff wrote:

A question for the group…is anyone compensating staff differently than normal pay for working onsite at this time and, if not, are you planning to if they will be working directly with known sick people?

Thanks for any feedback or suggestions!

[Janice Miller]

Hi Joanne,

That’s a great question.  Currently we are not compensating people differently,but do have plans to pay “emergency pay” of time and a half for our Essential Staff if there is a diagnosed case on site.  Some additional helps to support our residential staff include transportation assistance to anyone who would normally take public transportation (via cab), and ability to eat a meal on shift as prepared by our kitchen staff (as the restaurants are now closed).  We set up separate tracking sheets to ensure we don’t charge those expenses to our grants meant to support survivors.

Hi Joanne,

That’s a great question.  Currently we are not compensating people differently,but do have plans to pay “emergency pay” of time and a half for our Essential Staff if there is a diagnosed case on site.  Some additional helps to support our residential staff include transportation assistance to anyone who would normally take public transportation (via cab), and ability to eat a meal on shift as prepared by our kitchen staff (as the restaurants are now closed).  We set up separate tracking sheets to ensure we don’t charge those expenses to our grants meant to support survivors.

[Janice Miller]

Unemployment Services Trust sent this information to us:

“During times of uncertainty, we are often asked how potential closures may impact unemployment. As a reminder, individuals are eligible to collect for any loss of wages should their hours be reduced or eliminated. Therefore, any impacted workers should file for unemployment as they normally would. Since most employees will have a return to work date, it is likely that the work search requirement would be waived in these instances.
In the event that your organization has to temporarily suspend operations, we’ve included a list – broken down by state – of the weekly minimum and maximum benefits to roughly calculate potential financial impacts to your organization.
In addition, the state and federal governments are rapidly passing legislation related to COVID-19. The state and federal governments have not yet passed any legislation regarding unemployment benefits for those affected by COVID-19 however, during periods of unforeseen crises, we have seen instances where the state and/or federal governments will pass legislation to cover additional weeks beyond the state allowable benefit duration.
Please click here to reference each state’s information and a statement from our claims administrator, Equifax Workforce Solutions, can be found here.”

[Janice Miller]

More from our emergency outbreak policy on Emergency pay:

Our Emergency Outbreak policy clearly states that for staff to be eligible for Emergency pay, they must be (a) required essential staff and (b) working on site. Remote workers may still get paid for working, but not get time and a half.

Anyone experiencing similar requests for emergency pay when not clearly at risk?  Anyone doing this differently?

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