More On: clorox
Clorox tops corporate reputation ranking as demand soars over COVID-19
Call center workers helping laid-off New Yorkers fear coronavirus exposure
Unemployed and looking for health insurance? New York state has promised to help, but it may be endangering its call center workers in the process, The Post has learned. The contract workers responsible for helping the growing throngs of unemployed New Yorkers find affordable health insurance say they are taking off work to avoid catching …
Unemployed and looking for health insurance? New York state has promised to help, but it may be endangering its call center workers in the process, The Post has learned.
The contract workers responsible for helping the growing throngs of unemployed New Yorkers find affordable health insurance say they are taking off work to avoid catching the deadly disease as their co-workers get sick and they run out of Clorox wipes.
The absences may be contributing to longer-than-expected wait times, which were already up due to a surge in demand, workers say. A call to the state’s public health-care exchange this week quoted a wait time of more than 30 minutes.
“It’s a ghost town there. People are afraid to come to work,” said Karly Norgaise, a quality control worker at a Manhattan call center. She said only 11 people were working on her floor — which normally houses about 60 people — when she was last there on April 3.
“I’m staying home because I’m really scared now,” Norgaise told The Post.
Complaints include inconsistent enforcement of social distancing rules and a lack of sanitizing supplies. Norgaise and her colleagues were given Clorox wipes for a while, but the office ran out by last week, she said.
One worker at the Albany call center has come down with COVID-19, staffers said, and they have faced a number of suspected cases, including one at the Broad Street location where Norgaise works.
Maximus, the contract company that runs the hotline for New York’s health insurance marketplace, says wait times were up at the start of the virus crisis “due to unexpected demand,” but claims average wait times have since come down.
It also denies that it has been lax in keeping workers safe, saying it has ramped up sanitizing in line with federal standards, and invested more resources in “safeguarding our employees,” according to Maximus spokeswoman Lisa Miles.
Maximus says 875 of its 2,900 workers across the state, including some of its 1,500 call center staffers, are working from home — a number that’s expected to grow.
“Ensuring the safety and well-being of Maximus employees is paramount to ensure that citizens continue to have access to the most essential programs,” Miles told The Post in an e-mail.
Workers are now circulating a petition urging Maximus to give call center staffers the option to work from home or provide “emergency” paid leave if they cannot. The Communications Workers of America labor union, which is organizing Maximus employees, has flagged the safety concerns to the state Department of Labor.
“It is imperative that Maximus’ New York employees — who are working on the frontlines to help New Yorkers access health coverage in this time of crisis — not be required to put themselves and their families in harm’s way to perform their duties,” said Dennis Trainor, vice president of CWA District 1.
The conflict comes as New York pushes a “special enrollment period” to help laid-off workers find affordable health care through its “State of Health” marketplace. While enrollment for public plans, such as Medicaid, is open year-round, the usual window for private policies lasts just a few months and ended on Feb. 7 this year.
