State of Connecticut
City employees will not be fired for traveling to a Covid-19 hotspot — but they may lose vacation days.
City employees will not be fired for traveling to states with high levels of Covid-19 cases, Mayor Justin Elicker said on Monday evening.
The statement reversed wording in a city-issued memo that had teachers and other school staff worrying about the security of their jobs late last week.
“The short answer is no,” Elicker said. “Nobody is going to lose their job. I accept responsibility for that over-the-top language.”
The New Haven Register’s Mary O’Leary reported on Thursday that city and Board of Education employees had received a notice warning them about traveling to the 31 “hotspot” states included in Gov. Ned Lamont’s pandemic travel advisory. The memo stated that they might not get leave or pay to quarantine after knowingly traveling to these states and that they might “face disciplinary action, up to and including termination.”
It was not clear in the memo that it did not apply to all New Haven Public Schools employees.
However, Superintendent Iline Tracey clarified at Monday night’s NHPS Board of Education meeting that the memo applies only to employees who work in the schools and are also part of city government (as opposed to school system) bargaining units. This does not include teachers or administrators, she said.
“In my effort to be totally transparent, something came from the city and I sent it out,” Tracey said, adding that she should have provided more context and did after the initial email.
The memo does cover school nurses, security officers and program coordinators officially employed by the City of New Haven. This includes members of the clerical and management unions Local 884 and Local 3144, the city confirmed.
Board of Education member Darnell Goldson was the first to broach the topic at Monday’s meeting and ask for clarification.
“In all my years that I have been on this planet, I have never heard of an employer who said if you traveled and got sick, you could be fired,” Goldson said.
Elicker explained that his goal was to prevent the city from becoming short-staffed. He said that the employees covered by the memo need to use their own vacation time to cover their two weeks of state-mandated quarantine after traveling to a hotspot.
“Otherwise we could be in a situation where they are prohibited from coming back to work and the city has to scramble to find a replacement,” Elicker said.
That said, the termination language was “overzealous” and no longer the policy, Elicker said.
Asked Tuesday for further clarification about how the policy affects Board of Ed employees covered by city unions, Elicker released this statement: “The New Haven Board of Education and NHPS staff take the safety of the employees and students very seriously. Dr. Tracey and her team will be working with the leadership of the unions that represent the workforce at the New Haven Public Schools on the appropriate response, procedures, and safeguards to limit any spread of COVID-19, including travel to and from known hotspots.”
What a reasonable reaction to this article might look like:
During a global pandemic, it makes sense to track infection rates by State. It also makes sense for the State government to publish maps that show infection "hot spots" for use by local governments and private interests to help shape policies that will reduce the risk of exposure to the virus by employees. Lastly, it makes sense to institute clear disincentives, like reduced vacation days, for employees who travel to hotspot states.
What an unreasonable reaction to this article from the perspective of an ideologue might look like:
The States that have been identified by the State government as hotspots are States with high concentrations of Black Americans (https://www.census.gov/population/www/censusdata/maps/density7.jpg). Municipal Policies that disincentivize travel to these states will disproportionately impact Black employees with family and friends in the South. The State's map and New Haven's White mayor's policy is racist and akin to redlining. The mayor should apologize, resign, and give Black city employees additional vacation days.