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Norfolk — For months, Norfolk utility workers privately have complained city leaders have put their health at risk by ignoring safety rules and failing to inform staff when one of their colleagues tests positive for the coronavirus.
One of those workers, 64-year-old driver Larry Wilson, died Monday after 42 days in the hospital.
His wife, Easter Wilson, said in an interview that he had complained about riding in close quarters with colleagues and not being told when someone was sick. Shortly before Larry Wilson fell ill, a coworker riding in his truck said he didn’t feel well.
On Tuesday night, those concerns erupted into public view when three employees — prompted by Wilson’s death — called into a City Council meeting, raising the issues during a discussion about coronavirus stimulus funding.
“We have had several members of our department infected with coronavirus. To date, we have not been formally notified,” said Marc Johnson, an employee.
He and others said they are working shoulder-to-shoulder with other employees without proper personal protective equipment, such as masks or gloves.
Jennifer Webb, a seven-year-veteran of the Department of Utilities, said managers had employees riding five to a truck. In other city departments, like waste management, the city has prohibited multiple employees from riding in close quarters on the same truck.
The combination has utilities employees worried that they will be — or have already been — exposed and won’t know to take precautions to protect themselves and their families.
They also said utility workers — who have been working in person throughout the pandemic, with some making house calls and interacting directly with the public — should have received hazard pay that went to other front-line workers during the city’s first round of stimulus spending.
During the meeting, City Manager Chip Filer responded by saying the city’s policy since the beginning of the pandemic has been to notify an entire department when one of its workers tests positive. They can generally do that without violating medical privacy laws, Filer said.
But he said there have been delays recently in getting test results back, which was likely contributing to delays in notice.
In interviews with The Virginian-Pilot, other employees said the lack of notice didn’t start recently and that they were largely finding out who was sick from informal conversations with colleagues.
Filer also said the city has plenty of PPE, but he promised at Tuesday’s meeting that his staff would check with all department heads Wednesday to make sure all employees could get it.
Filer reiterated those points Wednesday in an email and wrote he “will reach out to our employees directly to determine how we can improve our policies and procedures to ensure that everyone feels safe reporting to work.”
City Council members said they had previously seen or heard examples of what the employees were saying.
“I too have seen city employees piled up in a truck with no regard for social distancing,” Angelia Williams Graves said.
Mamie Johnson, another councilwoman, said employees had reached out to her directly with concerns.
“These are stories that we’re hearing, and they do not feel comfortable with calling the hotline and they’re sharing their stories with me,” she said, referencing a hotline for employees to report issues in their department.
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City workers have told The Pilot in the past that many rank-and-file employees do not feel comfortable voicing concerns to human resources or the city auditor’s office for fear of retribution from higher-ups.
Two other utilities employees, who spoke with The Pilot but did not want to be identified for fear of retaliation, echoed the concerns about the failure of department management to notify workers of positive tests, the unsafe working conditions and the lack of hazard pay.
The city paid $2,000 apiece to what it called “frontline employees” who’d worked throughout the pandemic and can’t do their jobs remotely. That included employees such as police, and later waste management workers at the insistence of City Council members.
But utilities workers were passed over, instead getting a $250 “thank you” payment along with every other rank-and-file employee who wasn’t considered on the front lines.
A group of meter mechanics wrote a letter to Deputy City Manager Catheryn Whitesell in July asking that the city consider adding them to the list of those eligible for the hazard pay bonus, arguing that in going out to service meters, they were regularly in contact with members of the public.
Whitesell responded in an email that they didn’t meet the criteria, according to screenshots provided to The Pilot.
Ryan Murphy, 757-739-8582, ryan.murphy@pilotonline.com