Seattle will keep enforcing hazard pay for grocery store workers | Washington

(The Center Square) – In Seattle, employers will continue to pay risk payments to grocery store workers as Washington grapples with more pandemic concerns.

Seattle city councilor Teresa Mosqueda, chair of the city’s housing and finance committee, on Monday called for a vote to be postponed on ending the hazard allowance that the council passed in January. The vote would have ended the extra $ 4 an hour for grocery store workers who work on the front lines but retained most of the public health rules like the availability of personal protective equipment.

Mosqueda said Monday that the decision was not an easy one for her. Washington’s rising COVID cases, she said, as well as the more contagious Delta variant of the virus, are contributing Case burden of the state.

“As the Delta variant shows, we are not yet out of the woods when it comes to fighting this virus and returning to a new normal,” said Mosqueda. “Many Seattle families are still struggling financially and unable to pay their rent, many seniors are still isolated from their loved ones and communities, and our transportation systems are struggling with passenger traffic as more companies postpone their return dates.”

Monday’s news follows the unanimous vote of the Seattle Rescue Plan 2, which will allocate $ 52.2 million in federal dollars for rental benefits, senior services and transportation.

The legislation includes a $ 28.7 million rental allowance for the United Way of King County and the Office of Housing to help cover housing-related costs, including internet services and homelessness prevention services for low-income households. An additional $ 7.8 million will go towards managerial services such as transportation, case management, food delivery, and caregiver care.

Roughly $ 13.5 million of the plan will fund the construction of the Madison Street Bus Rapid Transit, replenish the revenue lost from the pandemic, and aid Seattle’s tram and monorail systems.

Eventually, the $ 2.2 million plan for the McCaw Hall Theater of the Performing Arts will cover payroll, utilities, and other business expenses granted to it through a previous federal grant.

The council passed Seattle’s first $ 128.4 million bailout package in June 2020, which the city expects to receive an additional $ 116 million in federal funding through May 2022.

Both Seattle and King Counties continue to have some of the highest Vaccination rates in the state and in the nation. The two metropolitan areas are also seeing rising case numbers, pale compared to cities across the country. Based on King County’s public health data, Seattle has not seen a death from COVID-19 since July 11.

Civil servants in the city, county, and across the country have until October to review their shots under various Mandates to Governor Jay Inslee.

“We will continue to review the best public health information as we continue to delve into this legislation,” Mosqueda said. “Not only do we want to protect frontline food workers, we also want to protect the public with whom they interact.”

The Seattle City Council vote on the dangerous goods payment for grocery stores is now postponed to September 13th.