Volume 17, Issue 1
spring 2020
Security Shredding News Serving the Security Shredding & Records Storage Markets
Visit us online at www.SecurityShreddingNews.com
Shred Biz Employers, Employees Study New Coronavirus Response Act By P.J. Heller
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newly enacted federal law designed to provide U.S. workers with extended emergency paid sick leave and emergency paid family and medical leave in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic may be of little help to some employees in the document destruction industry. Employees at some document destruction companies may not be eligible for benefits because their firms are too large to qualify under the Families First Coronavirus Response Act. Small companies which might not be able to afford the added costs, meantime, are likely to seek an exemption from the U.S. Department of Labor. The Families First Coronavirus Response Act was passed by the Senate on March 18 and signed into law that day by President Trump. The comprehensive bill includes new emergency paid sick leave provisions as well as expands existing emergency family and medical leave rules. It took effect April 1 and runs until Dec. 31. It applies to private employers with fewer than 500 employees. However, employers with fewer than 50 workers can seek an exemption by the Labor Department from the family medical leave mandate if the leave requirements would jeopardize the viability of their business. The department can also exempt employers from the emergency sick leave provisions. Guidelines for those exemptions were not immediately spelled out by the Labor Department. P r e v i o u s l y, t h e Fa m i ly M e d i c a l Leave Act applied to companies with 50 to 500 employees. The federal sick leave requirement is entirely new. Employees at large document destruction companies may find themselves ineligible. Shred-it, for example,
has more than 5,000 employees and says its top 10 competitors average 563 employees. Most shredding companies have fewer than 50 employees and independent, single market dedicated data destruction firms have fewer than 15 employees, according to an industry spokesman. Most local shredding companies operate only 1 to 2 trucks, according to Shred Nations. Some small document destruction fir ms, however, may be part of a larger organization that offers recycling, IT asset disposition (ITAD) and/ or records management services. It was not known how many small
document destruction businesses might seek an exemption from the government. “We have no way of telling how many will apply for the exemption but I can assume most would, since it poses an undue burden on small businesses,” said Bob Johnson, chief executive officer of the trade group i-SIGMA (the International Secure Information Governance and Management Association). He said i-SIGMA had gone on record requesting that provision be amended prior to it being signed into law. The trade organization includes the National Association for Information Destruction (NAID) and PRISM International. Workers who have been laid off or do not meet certain employment requirements will be ineligible for the added aid, although they might qualify for state unemployment benefits. More than 10 million jobless claims were filed nationwide in March. Regardless of employment status, however, help should be on the way after a $2 trillion Continued on page 3