A federal contractor is making millions off the coronavirus pandemic while workers struggle to stay safe. onesarahjones reports
MAXIMUS workers protest in Lawrence, Kansas. Photo: Communication Workers of America When Danita McRae’s son developed symptoms of a respiratory infection, she decided to stay home from work. She has thyroid cancer, she told Intelligencer by phone, and she’s at high risk for complications from COVID-19. She wasn’t concerned only for herself. If she had the virus, she didn’t want to spread it to her co-workers at a MAXIMUS call center in Hattiesburg, Mississippi.
The May Day rally is only the latest symptom of worker unrest for the corporation, which receives federal and state contracts worth billions of dollars to manage enrollment in Medicare, Medicaid, and the Affordable Care Act’s insurance marketplace.
Though Lisa Miles, a company spokesperson, initially told Intelligencer that its contract with the IRS did not mean it had any role administering recent economic stimulus payments to the public, the presentation it gave to shareholders on Thursday claimed that MAXIMUS did in fact support the IRS “to ensure that the Economic Impact Payments were paid in a timely manner, while continuing our normal tax-season support.
The mask. Photo: Kristen Runk Social distancing is also a struggle. In Runk’s call center, MAXIMUS has spaced workers out so they’re six feet apart from each other, but she said some hallways are too narrow for people to maintain an ideal distance. Managers have sanitizing wipes, but workers can only use one per day, and if their shift doesn’t coincide with the usual distribution of wipes, they sometimes don’t get one at all.
“We are doing everything possible to keep our employees safe as they perform the critical work of keeping essential government services open and accessible to people in need,” she added. MAXIMUS now offers 14 days of “paid administrative leave” for employees who have tested positive for COVID-19 or are awaiting testing, and says that its emergency-sick-leave policy is available for workers with child-care or other caregiving responsibilities.
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