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The Senate Appropriations Committee has nailed down how much money Vermont’s essential workers will be receiving over the next three months to supplement their base pay as they continue working through the pandemic.
The program overall will cost the state $90 million and run for three months — April, May and June. The money will come out of the state’s Coronavirus Relief Fund, which is the $1.25 billion Vermont received from the federal CARES Act package.
Employees who work over 108 hours a month will receive a $1,000 monthly grant. Employees who work at least 34 hours a month will receive a $600 monthly grant. An estimated 33,500 workers in the state will be able to claim checks under the current version of the bill, 20-0964.
As the bill stands now, the program covers grocers, pharmacists, trash collectors, dentists, child care workers, homeless shelter staff and others who are required to interact with the public in some capacity.
The grant program was propped up to ensure that essential workers kept working when concerns were raised that some employees could make more money while unemployed than they would on the job. The bill hasn’t been passed out of committee yet — feedback is being gathered from House leadership and the Scott administration so that tweaks can be made if necessary.
Another bill, 20-0962, that would allow employees to file for workers’ compensation if they contract the virus on the job is also heading through the Senate. It was formally voted out of the Senate Economic Development committee in a 5-0 vote Thursday.
The essential worker grants will be eligible for all employees who earn $25 per hour or below. There is an exception for nursing home workers and home health aides who typically earn above the $25 per hour threshold on average, but lawmakers included them to ensure their retention.
There were some disagreements among Senate Appropriation Committee members about what kinds of workers could be eligible for the grants. Sen. Bobby Starr, D-Essex-Orleans, advocated for farmworkers to be included in a Monday committee hearing.
“I’ve gotten several calls since this issue has come up about farmworkers. If they’re employees of the farm they’re an essential worker,” Starr said. “It seems unfair to me that farm supply stores would be eligible because they’ve been allowed to stay open. But yet the very people who do the work to create the farm supply stores are not going to be part of this structure.”
“The answer right now is no, particularly if you’re talking about undocumented workers,” Committee Chair Sen. Jane Kitchel, D-Caledonia, responded. “We recognize that’s a hardship because they’re not getting that $1,200 payment, etc.”
“You still have to certify that the nature of the work that employee is doing, puts that person at high risk of exposure to the virus,” Kitchel said. Farmworkers are not eligible for the program under the current version of the bill.
Similar disagreements arose over the workers’ compensation bill in a Senate Economic Development Committee meeting on Tuesday. Stephen Monahan, director of the Workers’ Compensation and Safety Division in the Department of Labor, recommended narrowing the types of employees who could qualify for the benefit.
By expanding workers’ comp claims to cover Covid-19, Monahan worried these claims could expand to cover seasonal flu, raising costs for employers.
“Workers’ compensation wasn’t designed as health care for all,” Monahan said. “So then why aren’t we covering the flu or some other thing that is contagious to the general population?”
David Mickenberg, a lobbyist for the Vermont Association for Justice, pushed back on Monahan’s suggestions. He said if essential workers do contract Covid-19 at work, they should be covered.
“I don’t think this is comparable to other types of diseases,” he said. “We’re in uncharted territory.”
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