Category : Uncategorized

Date: April 20, 2020

Governor, Dr. Alexander-Scott Provide Updates on State’s Response to COVID-19

Governor Gina M. Raimondo and Nicole Alexander-Scott, MD, MPH, the Director of the Rhode Island Department of Health (RIDOH) provided updates on Rhode Island’s response to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) today. 

The Governor began outlining her vision for safely reopening Rhode Island’s economy. For weeks, a team of experts on the Governor’s “New Normal” workstream have been exploring how and when this process can begin. To guide these decisions, the Governor announced today a series of indicators that measure the state’s readiness to reopen. The six key indicators are as follows: 

• Has the rate of spread continued to decrease? 
• Does the state have the capacity to quickly identify community spread on an ongoing basis before a major outbreak occurs? 
• Does the state have necessary supports in place for vulnerable populations, and for anyone in quarantine? 
• Does Rhode Island’s healthcare system have the capacity and the PPE to handle future surges? 
• Do businesses, schools, child care facilities, faith leaders, and recreational spaces have plans for long-term social distancing? 
• Is the state prepared to reimpose measures, or reclose certain sectors of the economy, if it becomes necessary? 

The Governor also announced that the USDA Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) recently granted Rhode Island the authority to issue Pandemic-EBT benefits (P-EBT) to Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and non-SNAP households with one or more children who have temporarily lost access to free or reduced price meals at school due to COVID-19 school closures. For households receiving SNAP benefits, the additional benefits will be added to their existing EBT cards. Households not currently receiving SNAP benefits will receive a new P-EBT card in the mail with benefits automatically added and a personal identification number (PIN) and setup instructions. More information can be found here. 

COVID-19 Data Update 

RIDOH posted updated COVID-19 data online today. Rhode Island has 339 new cases of COVID-19. This brings Rhode Island’s count to 5,090. RIDOH also announced five additional COVID-19 associated fatalities. Of these people, one person was in their 60s, one person was in their 80s, and three people were in their 90s. All five of these people lived in congregate living settings. Rhode Island’s number of COVID-19 associated fatalities is now 155. A full data summary for Rhode Island is posted online.

Key messages for the public

• Anyone who is sick should stay home and self-isolate (unless going out for testing or healthcare).
• The people who live with that person and who have been in direct close contact with that person should self-quarantine for 14 days after the last day that that person was in isolation. Direct close contact means being within approximately 6 feet of a person for a prolonged period.
• Help is available for people living in quarantine or isolation due to COVID-19. Visit www.RIDelivers.com for connections to groceries, home supplies, restaurants, and mutual aid groups. People can also call 2-1-1. 
• When people are in public, they should wear a cloth face covering. A cloth face covering is a material that covers the nose and mouth. It could be sewn by hand or improvised from household items such as scarves, T-shirts, or bandanas.
• Groups of more than five people should not be gathering. Always avoid close personal contact with other people in public.
• Healthcare workers should not be going to work if they are sick (even with mild symptoms).
• People who think they have COVID-19 should call their healthcare provider. Do not go directly to a healthcare facility without first calling a healthcare provider (unless you are experiencing a medical emergency).
• People with general, non-medical questions about COVID-19 can visit www.health.ri.gov/covid, write to RIDOH.COVID19Questions@health.ri.gov, or call 401-222-8022. This is the COVID-19 Hotline that RIDOH has available to the public.
• Everyone can help stop the spread of viruses in Rhode Island.
  • Get your flu shot, and make sure the people around you do the same.
  • Wash your hands often throughout the day. Use warm water and soap. If soap and water are not available, use hand sanitizer with at least 60% alcohol.
  • Cough or sneeze into your elbow.
  • Stay home and do not leave your house if you are sick, unless it is for emergency medical care.
  • Avoid touching your eyes, nose, or mouth. Germs spread this way.

Control Automation, (special machine builders) just finished 3 conveyor systems for Honeywell in Smithfield to Ink jet their masks. 6 more are underway and coming soon!

Manufacturers take the DOH protocol on safety in the workplace to heart.  All manufacturers want a safe and healthy work environment.  We all need to do our part to keep our plants open and supporting the Rhode Island economy.

SBA NEWS RELEASE

WASHINGTON – Following President Trump’s signing of the historic Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, SBA Administrator Jovita Carranza and Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin today announced that the SBA and Treasury Department have initiated a robust mobilization effort of banks and other lending institutions to provide small businesses with the capital they need.

The CARES Act establishes a new $349 billion Paycheck Protection Program. The Program will provide much-needed relief to millions of small businesses so they can sustain their businesses and keep their workers employed.

“This unprecedented public-private partnership is going to assist small businesses with accessing capital quickly. Our goal is to position lenders as the single point-of-contact for small businesses – the application, loan processing, and disbursement of funds will all be administered at the community level,” said Administrator Carranza. “Speed is the operative word; applications for the emergency capital can begin as early as this week, with lenders using their own systems and processes to make these loans. We remain committed to supporting our nation’s more than 30 million small businesses and their employees, so that they can continue to be the fuel for our nation’s economic engine.”

“This legislation provides small business job retention loans to provide eight weeks of payroll and certain overhead to keep workers employed,” said Secretary Mnuchin. “Treasury and the Small Business Administration expect to have this program up and running by April 3rd so that businesses can go to a participating SBA 7(a) lender, bank, or credit union, apply for a loan, and be approved on the same day.  The loans will be forgiven as long as the funds are used to keep employees on the payroll and for certain other expenses.”

The new loan program will help small businesses with their payroll and other business operating expenses. It will provide critical capital to businesses without collateral requirements, personal guarantees, or SBA fees – all with a 100% guarantee from SBA. All loan payments will be deferred for six months. Most importantly, the SBA will forgive the portion of the loan proceeds that are used to cover the first eight weeks of payroll costs, rent, utilities, and mortgage interest.

The Paycheck Protection Program is specifically designed to help small businesses keep their workforce employed. Visit SBA.gov/Coronavirus for more information on the Paycheck Protection Program.

The new loan program will be available retroactive from Feb. 15, 2020, so employers can rehire their recently laid-off employees through June 30, 2020.

Loan Terms & Conditions

Eligible businesses: All businesses, including non-profits, Veterans organizations, Tribal concerns, sole proprietorships, self-employed individuals, and independent contractors, with 500 or fewer employees, or no greater than the number of employees set by the SBA as the size standard for certain industries

Maximum loan amount up to $10 million

Loan forgiveness if proceeds used for payroll costs and other designated business operating expenses in the 8 weeks following the date of loan origination (due to likely high subscription, it is anticipated that not more than 25% of the forgiven amount may be for non-payroll costs)

All loans under this program will have the following identical features:

• Interest rate of 0.5%
• Maturity of 2 years
• First payment deferred for six months
• 100% guarantee by SBA
• No collateral
• No personal guarantees
• No borrower or lender fees payable to SBA

SBA’s announcement comes on the heels of a series of steps taken by the Agency since the President’s Emergency Declaration to expeditiously provide capital to financially distressed businesses affected by the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Since March 17, SBA has taken the following steps:

Declared all states and territories eligible for Economic Injury Disaster Loan assistance
1-year deferment on Economic Injury Disaster Loans provided due to COVID-19

Automatic deferment of previous disaster loans for homeowners and businesses through 2020 
Waiver of garnishments through 2020

Visit SBA.gov/Coronavirus for more information on SBA’s assistance to small businesses.

Downloads:

Paycheck Protection Program Application Form

Small Business Paycheck Protection Program Overview

Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) Borrower Information Fact Sheet

Governor Raimondo and Commerce Secretary, Stefan Pryor, on their daily update expressed their support of the efforts of the manufacturing community.  Manufacturers are taking the lead on how best to protect their employees and setting a high bar.  All manufacturers are working to meet the RI DOH protocols or surpass those requirements for a healthy workplace combating the spread of the coronavirus.  Below is the comments made by Secretary Pryor….

Commerce Secretary Pryor made the following announcement related to manufacturing during the daily televised press conference with Governor Raimondo on Sunday, March 29:

The Secretary thanked Rhode Island’s manufacturers and said, “you all have been incredible; the level of cooperation that our industrial leaders have been showing us has been phenomenal. The Rhode Island Manufacturers Association, led by Dave Chenevert in particular, has been an amazing partner. They are in the process of sending out a pledge for Rhode Island’s manufacturers to sign saying manufacturers are following best practices and the protocols of Rhode Island Department of Health, informed by [Federal guidance] and others. They are working hard to make sure all employers know about best practices including: spacing (ensuring all employees are working 6 feet apart, avoiding gatherings in areas including breakrooms and cafeterias, screening employees for symptoms, not allowing people to enter facilities or the work environment [whenever it can be avoided] including truck and delivery drivers) but of course treating all people with respect. These are the things RIMA and some of their partners like Polaris MEP and some key manufacturers have been doing with their own initiatives in collaboration with Governor Raimondo and us and we are so grateful.” The Secretary went on to say, “It is one of the reasons we have confidence, for now, we can continue manufacturing operations in Rhode Island. Thank you very, very much. We ask each and every manufacturer to be in touch with Rhode Island Manufacturers Association (RIMA) on this new pledge they will be asking you to review and sign.”

Owner: Karl Wadensten

Karl Wadensten is always taking care of his employees especially during the COVID-19 crisis. Karl hands out personnel hand sanitizer to everyone Courtesy of sons of Liberty Whiskey distiller. VIBCO Vibrators is getting out the personnel hand sanitizer to their workers and families.

Also, VIBCO Vibrators had Monroe dairy coming there for years and Roch’s produce as well once a week.

Now they have instituted to taking orders from their whole shop to keep them out of grocery stores. VIBCO Vibrators are paying for it now and they are delivering twice a week.  

Rhode Island Companies working together

To help our members and other businesses at this time along with Meridian Printing we have made up PDF signs for use in your facility. Print them out & Laminate.

We also suggest that you do NOT let a driver making deliveries into your facility such as UPS, FedEx or a truck driver delivering items to your loading dock.

RIMA is here to help in any way we can.

COVID-19 Informational Poster 11×14

COVID-19 Informational Poster 11×17

Assorted business entry signs for visitors and drivers

SmartWork (Work From Home) Guidance

State House has begun hearings on various legislation

We will monitor those pieces of legislation that will have a negative impact on our membership.  We have already testified at the House Finance Committee in support of Real Jobs and also in support of various programs being presented by CommerRI such as the RI ReBuild program.

  We have also met with the Speaker to review several pieces of legislation that we feel is against the interest of the manufacturing sector. Over the coming weeks, I plan on meeting with the Senate President and the House Finance Chair.  If you have any concerns on specific legislation, please do not hesitate to reach to us.

New Joint Employer Rule

Fisher Phillips has provided the following  update on the new Joint
Employment Rule:

The National Labor Relations Board just published a final rule that will
soon fundamentally alter the definition of joint employment, making it more
difficult for businesses to be held legally responsible for alleged labor
law violations by staffing companies, franchisees, and other related
organizations. The rule will also limit the ability of employees from
affiliated companies to join together to form unions.

Once the rule is in place on April 27, the joint employment standard will be
completely overhauled. There are five key considerations employers should be
aware of regarding the implementation of the new standard.

  *   New Standard: Share Or Codetermine Essential Terms Or Conditions
  *   Substantial Direct And Immediate Control
  *   Certain Practices “Probative” But Not Necessarily Determinative
  *   Certain Practices “Probative” But Not Necessarily Determinative
  *   Totality Of Circumstances

Caution: even though this is a published rule, it could be subject to
actions to delay or block its implementation.
PMPA Thanks Fisher Phillips for keeping us current on Labor law changes like
this.

Complete  Fisher Phillips post here:
https://www.fisherphillips.com/resources-alerts-5-things-you-need-to-know-about
Rule itself:
https://s3.amazonaws.com/public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2020-03373.
pdf
NLRB Notice:
https://www.nlrb.gov/news-outreach/news-story/nlrb-issues-joint-employer-final-rule
NLRB Fact Sheet:
https://www.nlrb.gov/sites/default/files/attachments/basic-page/node-7581/fact-sheet-joint-employer-final-rule.pdf

Please find a number of web-based resources you may find useful for your organization as you monitor, prepare for, and respond to the COVID-19 outbreak:

The primary websites for COVID-19-related information from the Centers for Disease Control and Preventions (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO):  

CDC: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html

WHO: https://www.who.int/news-room/q-a-detail/q-a-coronaviruses

A very important website to monitor for local interpretations and applications is the Rhode Island Department of Health: https://health.ri.gov/covid

The Johns Hopkins COVID-19 Global Case Map shows all of the confirmed cases, recovered cases, and deaths due to COVID-19 across the world:
https://gisanddata.maps.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6

Below are several additional links that could be of interest to the members of RIABR:

GENERAL BUSINESS:
Interim Guidance for Businesses and Employers to Plan and Respond to Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), February 2020: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/specific-groups/guidance-business-response.html

GENERAL PREVENTION:
Nonpharmaceutical Interventions (NPIs): https://www.cdc.gov/nonpharmaceutical-interventions/index.html

OSHA  COVID-19 Guidance: 
https://www.osha.gov/SLTC/novel_coronavirus/index.htmlexternal icon

TRAVEL:
Coronavirus Disease 2019 Information for Travel: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/travelers/index.html

Travel Health Notices: https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/notices

Department of State Travel Advisory Levels chart and color-coded map: https://travelmaps.state.gov/TSGMap/