Dishonestly Named "Safe To Work Act" Introduced by Texas' Senator Cornyn Would Give Businesses Immunity At the Expense of Employees

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Senate Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and the Republican Senate have continued to seek to exploit the COVID-19 health and resulting economic crises to gain passage of legislation that would provide broad immunity to businesses which would, in turn, create strong disincentives with respect to ensuring protection of their workers during the pandemic. The worry was that such legislation would leave returning workers vulnerable to exposure to COVID-19.

In fact, the bill introduced in the Senate this week is far worse than many advocates feared. On July 27, Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) introduced the dishonestly-named Safe To Work Act (S. 4317), which is a stunningly broad 65-page bill. Below are just a few of many extremely troubling provisions. The Bill would:

  • Shield businesses from accountability for violating federal employment laws, so long as the business “attempts” to follow federal “guidance.”

  • Defines the above-referenced federal employment law broadly to include the Occupational Safety and Health Act, the Fair Labor Standards Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act and other statutes;

  • Allows businesses to remove COVID-related claims to federal court;

  • Limits class actions and multidistrict litigation;

  • Requires a plaintiff to prove, “gross negligence,” and creates a new and more rigorous definition of “gross negligence.”

This is a bad bill that should not be passed in its current form.