A statewide initiative launches today to certify businesses in COVID-19 safety practices through online trainings for nearly a dozen sector-specific modules—from hotels to restaurants to dairy producers.
Tourism Secretary Jen Paul Schroer discussed the training program this morning during a joint news conference with Environment Secretary James Kenney and Workforce Solutions Secretary Bill McCamley focused on reopening and operating New Mexico businesses safely during COVID-19.
To that end, DWS will be working with the Occupational Health and Safety Bureau—which operates under the environment department—to hire 20 more health and safety officers under a $3 million dislocated workers grant, $1.8 million of which is allocated to OSHA resources. The division will also hire four administrative staff members, and held an online webinar for prospective employees last Friday.
The amped up emphasis on the workplace occurs as the environment department's so-called "rapid response" efforts increase across the state. In a nutshell, when an employee at a business tests positive for COVID-19, either the health, environment or another agency deploys to the business to ensure employees are tested and quarantined. The business must also temporarily close, disinfect and have a safety plan in place.
Those rapid responses have increased from 27 the week of May 25 to 175 during the week of July 6. A significant number of them have involved restaurants, Kenney said, noting that of the 19% rapid responses allocated to "food industries," 15% were at restaurants. The 31% of rapid responses at "all other industries," he said, involves a "hodgepodge" of other types of businesses, none at more than 2% individually.
"So you can see the concern we have with protecting workers in the restaurant industry specifically," Kenney said. A modified public health order that went into effect Monday re-shut restaurants for indoor dining. The environment department yesterday suspended the food licenses for four restaurants that failed to comply.
Kenney said the state is working with individual businesses to "tailor" their safety plans to come up with ones that are "efficient for ceasing the spread of COVID and cognizant of the disruption this causes to the employer itself. Overall, he said, most businesses are working hard to comply. "But in the instance in which an employer is not taking the necessary steps, there are enforcement consequences for such actions." Those include posting notices of imminent danger at the business—such as was done at a Las Cruces Walmart last weekend. Fines for OSHA violations also can reach up to $131,000, under authority by the environment department that pre-dates the COVID-19 pandemic, he said.
People also can file complaints with OSHA—there have been roughly 300 so far, he noted. In response to a question by SFR, he said the online map that allows people to see the locations of the violations and investigative outcomes, which have not been updated in months, will be updated once OSHA has additional staff.
"Our intent is to keep that updated, not just for COVID purposes, but for every health and safety complaint that comes into our department," he said. The mapping tool also can be used to track hazardous waste, air emissions and other environmental health elements.
Employees and others can file OSHA complaints online and anonymously. Moreover, employees who can prove their employers were not using COVID-19 safe practices can qualify for unemployment even if they resign, McCamley announced. Generally, people don't qualify for unemployment if they resign from their jobs, unless they can show good cause; lack of a COVID-safe workplace counts as good cause.
"During COVID, we are allowing for good causes to encompass pre-existing conditions [such as cancer or asthma] or…if you can prove your workplace is not safe," he said. "The safer our workplaces are, the more as customers, workers and employers [we can] do to make these processes safe…the more we can people back to work," McCamley said.
As for people working in tourism-related jobs, Schroer said the new online training was piloted through that sector, but as of today has expanded to include 11 different industries. Businesses that complete the training will be included on the New Mexico Safe Certified website in a business directory. That directory had not launched by press time. Schroer said 265 businesses have completed the program and 832 are currently registered.
The "safe-certified" campaign comes alongside the state's New Mexico Safe Promise undertaking, in which people pledge online to wear masks, socially distance and otherwise do what they can to prevent the spread of COVID-19. The cities of both Santa Fe and Taos have joined that effort, as have other entities such as New Mexico United and Public Service Company of New Mexico, Schroer said.
Schroer also played a new television campaign for the New Mexico Safe Promise campaign she said is "targeted" toward "our fellow new Mexicans" to say "it's going to take all of us for our economy to open. If we want our favorite coffee shop to stay open or we want our favorite grocery store…we have to do our part as New Mexicans and wear a mask…we all want life to go back to normal, but it's not going to be go back to normal for a while."
