Germ Warfare at Work

Question

I worked parttime as a telemarketer for a national photography company. My supervisor came to work with a virus and I caught it. Combined with other health problems, this has been a particularly traumatic for me, despite my supervisor's apologies and assurance that this illness will only last a short while.

At this job, workers are only told to clean their phones "before and after" we leave our shift with alcohol swabs the company supplies. I was the only worker I viewed who additionally and routinely cleaned my phone before directly handing it over to my supervisor who closed my sales-and she neglected to clean my phone after using it.

I want to file a state OSHA complaint about the company's unsafe working conditions. Can I also make this company reimburse me for time missed from my day job as a self-employed writer/graphics specialist, future medical expense as a result of this virus and time missed from this telemarketing job?

Answer 1

You are not likely to get much help with your complaint from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. OSHA handles only hazards "recognized as being likely to cause death or serious physical injury." These days, it spends most of its time on complaints of high-level toxic spills and such. And given that it is a completely overburdened bureaucracy, it handles precious few of these.

Your better bet is to attempt to resolve the dispute more informally, in your own workplace. It sounds as if you already have some standards in place. If they are not strong enough, lobby to get more strict ones. If they are not sufficiently enforced, call attention to that. Best of all, management is likely to take your complaint more seriously if a number of employees join in it. Ask for a meeting with supervisors and top execs and lay out your complaints, asking for a way to get a common sense solution to make the workplace safer for all of you. The more rational solutions you can propose, the better.

You will probably not be able to get reimbursed for time missed from your day job.