Sen. McConnell on push to protect businesses from coronavirus lawsuits
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell discusses a potential fourth coronavirus stimulus relief bill on ‘The Daily Briefing.’
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As House Democrats were preparing their $3 trillion coronavirus relief bill, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell drew a “red line”: no more spending without a liability shield for businesses.
Republicans shouldn’t budge on this — businesses need protection from frivolous lawsuits in order to reopen their doors, rehire employees and lead America into economic recovery.
A liability shield would ensure that if businesses are operating according to the best public health information knowledge available — the same information used by political leaders and health officials — then they won’t have to worry about facing lawsuits down the road if our understanding of proper care changes.
Critics argue that a liability shield undermines workers’ interests, but they have it backward. A liability shield doesn’t absolve employers from taking care to create a safe environment for workers and customers. And, backers of the liability shield aren’t asking for total immunity for businesses, just reasonable standards of care.
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The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) have issued recommendations for safe workplace operations, and any liability protection for businesses would be contingent on showing a good faith effort to comply with these recommendations. Employers who willfully disregard these standards of care and recklessly endanger the health and safety of workers or customers would face legal liability.
As we learn more about how the coronavirus spreads, how it affects different populations and how it can be best managed, our procedures for caring for workers and customers will, and ought to, change. And businesses will have the responsibility to adapt their safety practices accordingly.
But they can’t retroactively be held to a higher standard of care than what public health officials communicated at that moment.
A liability shield doesn’t remove the guardrails that employees and consumers should enjoy. But it does provide employers with clearer signage about where the pavement ends and the ditch begins.
Many businesses simply won’t have the confidence to re-open and re-hire if, even despite their best efforts based on the best publicly available guidance at the time, they could still be held liable for damages if a worker or customer falls ill from coronavirus. This fear would paralyze our economy and impede our nation’s ability to return to the pre-coronavirus prosperity.
A liability shield doesn’t remove the guardrails that employees and consumers should enjoy. But it does provide employers with clearer signage about where the pavement ends and the ditch begins, giving them the ability to get back on the road and up to speed more quickly.
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And, the reality is, the vast majority of businesses understand that it’s not only in their economic interests to keep workers and customers safe, but it’s also the right thing to do for the friends and neighbors who make up their workforce and customer base. Businesses operate in communities — they employ and serve people in those communities and foster relationships that go beyond employer-employee and producer-consumer.
They’re not asking for permission to endanger their friends and neighbors; they’re asking for permission to responsibly discover what safe operations and economic sustainability look like in a fast-moving and uncertain situation.
Trillions of dollars of relief have already shown us that government spending simply cannot save a shuttered economy.
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All of us are counting on businesses to quickly find a path to a robust recovery. It’s already a difficult enough job in the face of a novel and evolving health threat. We don’t need to make it harder by subjecting businesses to costly, time-consuming and potentially debilitating lawsuits that demand unreasonable standards of care.
Workers need a paycheck, and they need to earn it in an environment that protects their health and safety. Giving businesses a liability shield is the best way to make sure both can happen.
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