'Unorthodox,' 'abuse of power': ICE is hitting lawful asylum-seekers with a new obstacle

Carmen Sesin,NBC News•June 16, 2020


SEE Executive Overreaching in Immigration Adjudication PDF 
  TULANE LAW REVIEW APRIL 2019 AT THE END OF THIS ARTICLE

Karina Serrano Rodríguez was being escorted to a computer terminal at the South Louisiana Detention Center two weeks ago to prepare for her asylum case before an immigration judge when she learned that she would finally be paroled.

Rodríguez, 27, an asylum-seeker from Cuba, had spent eight months at the detention center, located in Basile, after having waited three months in Ojinaga, Mexico, for her turn under the Trump administration's Migrant Protection Protocols, also known as the Remain in Mexico policy.

Rodríguez was ecstatic when she learned the news — until she found out that the parole came with a $10,000 bond.

"It was like a bucket of cold water over my head," said Serrano, who is now living with relatives in Tampa, Florida. "I was desperate, because I didn't know where my family would come up with the money."

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Lawyers and advocacy groups say Serrano is part of a small but growing number of asylum-seekers in Louisiana detention centers who are being paroled with condition of bonds — something unusual for "arriving aliens," the official term for immigrants who present themselves at ports of entry and request asylum from authorities.

Karina Serrano Rodriguez (Courtesy Rolando Lopez Turruellas)"It's an unorthodox move," said Mich Gonzalez, a staff attorney with the Southern Poverty Law Center who has been working on litigation against the New Orleans field office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement for its constant refusal to parole asylum-seekers.

"Now that they're granting some paroles, they're placing as many hurdles as possible," Gonzalez said.

Immigration judges and ICE officials routinely require bonds for people with specific circumstances, like criminal histories or having entered the country in unauthorized ways, Gonzalez said.

They are not traditionally issued as a condition for releasing lawful asylum-seekers on parole, according to a 2009 ICE directive. Immigration judges have no jurisdiction over the custody of such asylum-seekers, and only ICE decides whether they get parole.

"The 2009 Parole Directive explicitly states that absent adverse factors, such as an indication that someone is a flight risk, ICE should grant release on parole," Gonzalez said.

But ICE officials are issuing bonds from $10,000 to $30,000, a hefty price for relatives and friends of detainees to come up with.

Asylum-seekers and lawyers say they are not telling detainees why they are being released with a bond.

In an email, Bryan Cox, the public affairs director for ICE's Southern region, told NBC News that he is not sure whether ICE tracks that type of data, and he said that if it does, he is not sure he could provide it because of ongoing litigation.

The Southern Poverty Law Center and the American Civil Liberties Union have brought a slew of cases against the New Orleans ICE field office for what they call a "blanket policy" of keeping asylum-seekers locked up. The groups won an injunction in September, when a federal judge ordered ICE to report each month the number of asylum-seekers paroled in the New Orleans field office.

Although ICE began releasing numbers after the lawsuits, Gonzalez criticized it, saying it is inconsistent. "We don't think they're accurate. We feel they're underreporting the number of applications they're receiving," Gonzalez said.

The New Orleans ICE field office has become notorious for being at a virtual standstill with the number of parole approvals.

In 2016, over 75 percent of asylum-seekers under its jurisdiction were granted parole. The number dropped dramatically, to 1.5 percent, in 2018, and in 2019, it paroled three people out of thousands in detention.
'It's extremely unusual'

There are no recent figures for the number of asylum-seekers who have been released on bond. The evidence is anecdotal, based on interviews with attorneys and people who have been released.

When Serrano was notified of her parole, three other women were granted parole, as well, also on $10,000 bonds. According to Serrano, the three women, like her, were Cuban, had no criminal histories and had family in the U.S. claiming them.

Homero López, executive director of Immigration Services and Legal Advocacy in New Orleans, said he has seen some asylum-seekers paroled with high bonds.

"It's extremely unusual," said López, who said he has seen it only a handful of times in his 10 years of experience.

He recently handled what he called a strong case for an LGBTQ person from El Salvador with family and friends in the U.S. She was released on $15,000 bond, which a nonprofit in Texas helped pay.

A detainee sits in a room to use a telephone inside the Winn Correctional Center in Winnfield, La., on Sept. 26, 2019. (Gerald Herbert / AP file)

Lara Nochomovitz, a private lawyer with a large client base in Louisiana who helps coordinate post-release services, told NBC News, "I see an uptick in releases, but most are coming with a bond attached."

Nochomovitz said she has seen up to a dozen paroles in Louisiana with $10,000 and $15,000 bonds. "That's obviously a lot of money for people to have to come up with," she said.

Coming up with money is complicated. With many people out of work because of the coronavirus pandemic, families are finding it difficult to gather the money. Bond funds have been depleted across the country and now have very limited resources.

"The National Bail Fund Network's referral system currently has $1.5 million of requests that no bond fund can meet at this time," said Elizabeth Nguyen, the immigration bond coordinator for the National Bail Fund Network.

Nguyen added that no matter how strong the fundraising is, bond funds cannot get everyone out because of the large number of people in detention whose paroles come with bonds.

Yaneici Peña Torres, 29, from Cuba, was paroled from South Louisiana Detention Center on June 3 after 10 months in detention and having been denied parole twice.

Peña Torres signed a contract with a bond company to pay the $10,000 that was attached to her parole.

Peña Torres, now in Miami, is filing paperwork so she can start looking for a job, but she worries that with the pandemic, she will not be able to find one. She owes the bond company $300 a month.

"This is an abuse of power. They don't care about us," Peña Torres said. But her mind is also on the detainees she left behind. "There are women who have been detained for over a year that are going crazy in that hell."

TULANE LAW REVIEW

VOL. 93 APRIL 2019 No. 4

Executive Overreaching in Immigration Adjudication

Fatna E. Marouf*

        PDF  https://scholarship.law.tamu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?         article=2304&context=facscholar

While Presidents have broad powers over immigration, they have traditionally shown restraint when it comes to influencing the adjudication of individual cases. 

The Trump Administration, however, has pushed past such conventional constraints.  

This Article examines executive overreaching in immigration adjudication by analyzing three types of interference.

First the Article discusses political interference with immigration adjudicators, including politicized appointments of judges, politicized performance metrics, and politicized training materials. 

Second the Article addresses executive interference with the process of adjudication, examining how recent immigration decisions by former Attorney General Jeff Sessions curtail noncitizens 'procedural rights instead of making policy choices and promote prosecution rather than fair adjudication. 

Third the Article examines executive policies that prevent aitudication from taking place, such as turning asylum seekers away at ports of entry, criminally prosecuting them if they enter illegally, and separating them fimm their children.

After discussing how these forms of executive interference threaten constitutional and statutory rights, the Article explores how the judiciary, Congress, and agencies can help protect against presidential influence in immigration adjudication.

Mississippi official: Black people 'dependent' since slavery

THIS IS THE AMERICAN WHITE SUPREMACIST ARGUMENT AGAINST WELFARE MOTHERS, 
IDENTIFYING THOSE IN NEED AS BLACK FOLK
WHEN IN REALITY IT'S PO'R WHITE TRASH

EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS, Associated Press•June 16, 2020



Confederate Symbols Mississippi
Lowndes County supervisor Harry Sanders listens as Bishop Scott Volland, unseen, asks the county to consider removing a Confederate monument from the courthouse lawn during a Lowndes County Board of Supervisors meeting, Monday, June 15, 2020, in Columbus, Miss. After rejecting a proposal to move the monument, Sanders said this week that African Americans “became dependent” during slavery and have had a harder time “assimilating” into American life as other groups who have been mistreated have. His remark has prompted calls for his resignation. (Claire Hassler/The Commercial Dispatch, via AP)


JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — After rejecting a proposal to move a Confederate monument, a white elected official in Mississippi said this week that African Americans “became dependent” during slavery and as a result, have had a harder time “assimilating” into American life than other mistreated groups. Critics said his remarks were outrageous and called on him to resign.

Confederate symbols are being debated in many states amid widespread protests across the U.S. against racism and police violence. Monuments that have stood for more than a century outside courthouses and on other public property have been removed or relocated in other Southern states in recent days, and supervisors in several Mississippi counties are discussing the matter.

In northeastern Mississippi's Lowndes County, supervisors voted along racial lines Monday against moving a Confederate monument that has stood outside the county courthouse in Columbus since 1912. The monument depicts a Confederate soldier and says the South fought for a “noble cause.” Three white supervisors voted against the proposal and two black supervisors voted for it.

At one point during the meeting, a white supervisor, Harry Sanders, said moving the monument would solve nothing and would be an attempt to erase history.

“We need to be reminded of some atrocity that happened," he said. “If we are not reminded about it, we are going to have a tendency to forget it and (the history) is going to repeat itself.”

After the meeting, Sanders, a Republican, was quoted by the Commercial Dispatch as saying that other groups of people who had also been mistreated in the past — he cited Irish, Italian, Polish and Japanese immigrants — were able to successfully “assimilate” afterward.

“The only ones that are having the problems: Guess who? The African Americans,” Sanders said. "You know why? In my opinion, they were slaves. And because of that, they didn’t have to go out and earn any money, they didn’t have to do anything. Whoever owned them took care of them, fed them, clothed them, worked them. They became dependent, and that dependency is still there. The Democrats right here who depend on the black vote to get elected, they make them dependent on them.”

Democratic State Rep. Kabir Karriem of Columbus, who is African American, told The Associated Press on Tuesday that Sanders should resign. Karriem called Sanders' remarks “appalling.”

“It's really unforgivable how outlandish they were, knowing that he has black people in his district,” Karriem said. “His revisionist history is not accurate at all. Our ancestors didn't want to be slaves.”

Sanders did not immediately respond to a message the AP left on his cellphone voicemail Tuesday.

A Mississippi law enacted in 2004 says no war monument may be “relocated, removed, disturbed, altered, renamed or rededicated.” But the law also says: “The governing body may move the memorial to a more suitable location if it is determined that the location is more appropriate to displaying the monument.”

Lowndes County is 53% white and 45% black. Several black and white residents asked supervisors on Monday to move the Confederate monument. One of the two black supervisors, Democrat Leroy Brooks, said people were not trying to change history, but wanted to “rechannel some things that are offensive."

“We are not saying tear it down," Brooks said. "We are saying relocate it, so when people come to the courthouse and they look at it from a certain angle, they don’t see something that looks like a Ku Klux Klan.”

In Mississippi's second-largest city, Gulfport, officials voted Tuesday to stop flying the state flag on city property because it includes the Confederate battle emblem that critics say is racist. Workers quickly removed the banner from City Hall.

Mississippi is the only state with a flag that includes the emblem: a red field topped with a blue X with 13 white stars. White supremacists embedded it in the upper left corner of the flag in 1894.

Several other Mississippi cities and counties and all eight of the state’s public universities have stopped flying the state flag in recent years, saying that the Confederate symbol does not properly represent a state with a 38% black population. People who voted in a 2001 statewide election chose to keep the symbol on the flag, but recent protests are reviving debate about changing the design.

Republican Gov. Tate Reeves has said that if the flag is going to be changed, it should be done in a statewide referendum.

____

Follow Emily Wagster Pettus on Twitter: http://twitter.com/EWagsterPettus.

Bail Denied To Murder Suspect In Alberta Metis Hunters' Deaths

Anthony Bilodeau is charged with killing Jake Sansom and Morris Cardinal.

By Brandi Morin, On Assignment For HuffPost Canada


BRANDI MORIN/HUFFPOST CANADA

Sarah Sansom hugs her daughter on the steps of the Edmonton courthouse.

EDMONTON — Sarah Sansom cherishes the last time her husband of 10 years kissed her before he left for a hunting trip in northern Alberta in late March. And she said she felt the moment he died, like a punch in the stomach.

“I knew when it happened,” Sarah told HuffPost Canada in an interview. “I felt it. I had pain and knew something was wrong. He was my soul mate.”

Jake Sansom, 39, was killed on the evening of March 27, along with his uncle Morris Cardinal, 57. RCMP said a verbal confrontation turned physical, and the pair were shot dead on a rural road near Glendon, northeast of Edmonton.

The three Sansom children haven’t slept alone since his killing. Two of them pile in with Mom at night, while the oldest sleeps on the floor next to the bed.
Bail denied to murder suspect

Anthony Bilodeau, 31, was charged with two counts of second-degree murder in April. Over the weekend, Roger Bilodeau, 56, was also charged with the same offences. RCMP confirmed the two, who are from Glendon, are related but have not revealed how.

The younger Bilodeau applied for bail Tuesday for a second time, and was denied.

Sarah drove almost six hours north from her home in Nobleford to be at the Edmonton courthouse Tuesday to try to make sure the accused remains behind bars.

“Do I wish them harm? No. But I’d love for them to sit there in jail for the rest of their lives and think about what they did,” she said of those responsible for her loved ones’ deaths.
BRANDI MORIN/HUFFPOST CANADA

From left to right: Michael Sansom in the back, Ruby Smith, left, Sarah Sansom, centre, and her daughter were at the Edmonton courthouse on Tuesday to oppose the bail request by the accused.

Sansom and Cardinal, who were part of the Metis Nation of Alberta, had designated hunting rights, including out of season. They had gone into the woods to go moose hunting after Sansom was laid off as a heavy equipment operator at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Sarah Sansom believes her husband, who was also a volunteer firefighter, and his uncle were killed because of racism.

“My husband was killed over it. It’s disgusting. It destroys families. To look at someone and take their life because of the colour of their skin,” said Sansom.

The RCMP have said they have no evidence at this point that the killings were racially motivated.

Byron Carr, who is part of the Métis Nation of Alberta, was among dozens of supporters outside the Edmonton courthouse Tuesday morning.

“It’s such a tragic loss. Everyone who has harvesting rights should be able to harvest in our own lands free of worry. We hunt in order to feed our families bellies and not get a bullet for it. I hope justice is served,” said Carr.
BRANDI MORIN/HUFFPOST CANADA

Father Mark Sych was at the Edmonton courthouse in support of Anthony Bilodeau and his family.

There were also people outside the courthouse in support of the two accused.

“There’s no racism in any of these hearts, not one ounce,” said a woman who identified herself as Anthony Bilodeau’s godmother.

Father Mark Sych added that the family “prayed for their souls” of the two dead Metis men.

Some of those opposing bail for Anthony Bilodeau shared their feelings through a megaphone.

“We all know too well the process you guys are going to go through,” Jade Tootoosis told the Sansom and Cardinal families on the courthouse steps. “And we know it’s not kind to Indigenous people. So we pass along our strength.”

We’re broken into pieces.Ruby Smith, Jake Sansom's mother

Tootoosis is the sister of Colton Boushie, 22, from Red Pheasant First Nation, who was shot and killed by a white farmer on his property in 2016. Gerald Stanley was acquitted of second-degree murder, which sparked protests across the country.

“We’re broken into pieces,” said Ruby Smith, who lost her brother as well as her son. “We won’t be able to put those pieces back again because Morris and Jake are those pieces.”

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, no funerals have been held. But Sarah is planning a celebration of life for Jake that will include traditional powwow singers, dancers and room for hundreds of people to attend.

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Amazing Cover Shot Challenges The Biggest Taboo For New Moms

Today's Parent shows a post-birth moment between mother and child in its full un-retouched glory.

By Valerie Howes 06/16/2020

HANNAH SPENCER

Baby Archer has to be Canada's youngest cover model, at just minutes old, when this shot was taken.

Canadian magazine Today’s Parent just released its July cover and not only does it feature what must be the youngest cover model of all time, it shows the tender moment Archer’s mom, Siarre Massey, first nurses her newborn son.

Baby Archer is seen literally fresh from the birth canal.

The photo was taken by U.S. birth photographer Hannah Spencer, who describes her aesthetic on her website as “real-shit birth imagery.”

Today’s Parent editor-in-chief Kim Shiffman said of the raw and intimate image:

“This photograph powerfully tells a story of the beautiful, emotional moment when your baby latches on to the breast for the first time. I love the mother’s left hand, protectively cradling her baby, and her gaze, loving and observant as she assesses her baby’s latch. I love the baby’s wrinkly newborn skin and little tushy (how could you not?). I love that this photo celebrates a beautiful Black mother and her baby.”

In 2020, for such a sweet moment to be cover-worthy shouldn’t be such a big deal, and yet it is

Just last year, it was reported that women still find themselves humiliated for pumping milk at work, asked to cover up while breastfeeding and ordered to leave a public swimming pool because they were nursing.

As recently as 2015, images of women breastfeeding were still banned from Facebook and Instagram. That same year, across North America, moms reported being kicked out of doctors’ offices, airplanes, locker rooms, restaurants, change rooms, churches, post offices and even an airplane bathroom, for daring to breastfeed their infants in these spaces.

Even though the right to nurse anywhere is protected by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, in a 2017 survey, 17 per cent of Canadian moms stated that they have still felt embarrassed while nursing in public. Meanwhile, in the U.S., some workers are still denied basic protections around the right to pump breastmilk at work.

In 2020.

However a parent nourishes their baby, they should be supported and respected. Fed is best. Mainstream media images like the cover of Today’s Parent will go a long way to helping smash dated taboos around breastfeeding and celebrate the beauty of the bond it can help to forge.

This Arctic Greenhouse Is Helping To Feed Northern Families During The Pandemic

Yes, it is possible to garden in the Arctic.

By Al Donato06/16/2020

INUVIK COMMUNITY GREENHOUSE

Inuvik Community Greenhouse staff pose with seeds donated by southern Canadians.

This is part of an ongoing HuffPost Canada series on food insecurity and how it’s affecting Canadians during the COVID-19 pandemic. In this edition, we explore how North America’s most northern greenhouse promotes local food production as an answer to food insecurity during the pandemic.

Getting kids to eat vegetables isn’t hard in the Arctic, especially when they’re grown under the midnight sun. In fact, Inuvik Community Greenhouse executive director Ray Solotki remembers one boy from the hamlet of Aklavik last year heading straight from the local airport to a garden plot to do just that.

“He was so excited and ran straight for the greenhouse to go and see how his kale was … we have kids eating kale like candy because it’s so fresh and delicious,” Solotki told HuffPost Canada.

To the uninformed, Arctic gardening can sound like an oxymoron. In reality, summers with 24 hours of sunlight make the greenhouse lush and balmy from March to October. What’s grown can take on delicious flavour profiles because of the unique surrounding area, as Inuvialuit gardener Lanita Thrasher can attest.

“One year, we had cold wind coming off the Arctic Ocean all summer and it made for the sweetest strawberries I’ve ever tried in my life,” Thrasher recalled. She hails from the nearby hamlet of Paulatuk, where they run a garden named for the local Qungulliq plant, but previously worked and volunteered at the greenhouse.

Normally, the greenhouse is a thriving community space, where people can partake in yoga classes, tours, cooking workshops, and harvest delicious produce like rhubarb, lettuce, and peas.

But since the COVID-19 pandemic intensified in March, the 18,000-square-foot “oasis of the north” needed to change operations entirely to ensure northern families could access fresh produce even during a health crisis. Almost a quarter of N.W.T. households have trouble buying groceries.

“This is our tester year,” Solotki explained. “Can we be a farm instead of a greenhouse?”


INUKVIK COMMUNITY GREENHOUSE

Normally $35, the weekly food boxes are now $20 each all summer, NNSL reports.

Usually, 90 per cent of its 180 soil-filled plots are used by paying members, who use them to grow whatever they’d like. The rest of the plots are used by the greenhouse to grow plants and produce for sale.

This year, that ratio has flipped because only staff and a restricted number of members are allowed to enter. Thanks to a $25,000 grant from Community Food Centres Canada, the greenhouse can sell subsidized weekly boxes of fruits and vegetables to those in need. So far, over 50 families have applied, four times the usual amount of applicants.

Additionally, seniors on fixed incomes are receiving free flowers, herbs, and mixed greens, funded by a United Way grant. Donations to homeless shelters have also been made.

Some plots have also been used to grow plants on behalf of members who continue to pay their dues, meaning Solotki — who also serves as a councillor and a firefighter for the community — and her part-time staff have kept busy watering and harvesting what grows at a breakneck speed, all while social distancing.

Aside from providing fruits and vegetables, the greenhouse hopes that the plants they distribute through starter sales encourage people to grow in their own backyards. The greenhouse’s ultimate goal this year is for town residents to realize they can grow food anywhere, not just in the greenhouse.

Most Inuvik residents are Inuvialuit and food sovereignty is an important value for the greenhouse. Defined by Food Secure Canada as “the right of peoples to healthy and culturally appropriate food,” having autonomy over what’s on the dinner table is something they believe cultivating locally supports for all community members. In Thrasher’s view, the pandemic might be a good time for people new to gardening to try it out.

Country food, which refers to the Northern cuisine made by food sourced from the surrounding area, is largely covered by outlets in relation to local animals and fish. Culturally appropriate fresh produce, such as blueberries grown in the greenhouse, is also important to make available.

“People don’t equate the Arctic with food security, but we have the ability. We have the intelligence,” Solotki said. “There’s this misconception that Indigenous people in the north don’t eat vegetables. That’s not true. The truth is, they would eat vegetables if they were readily available to them and were in good quality.”

Growing local is part of food security solution

Availability and cost is a huge issue when it comes to making food accessible to people in the territory.

Does $21 for a bag of flour sound reasonable? Even at the height of quarantine baking, shelling out four times the average Canadian cost would make many balk. But for an Inuvik resident, high food prices are normal year-round. The territorial government reported a bag of grapes sold for $10 in the small town last year.


The price of a watermelon in Inuvik. @JustinTrudeau Nobody can afford this. Please do something. pic.twitter.com/9R2q62dNAe— Diane Reid 🇨🇦🌎 ☮️ (@dianemariereid) August 12, 2019


Food prices in northern Canada can make grocery trips costly for families, although some items in Yellowknife, the territory’s biggest city, and nearby communities, are on par with southern prices. Financial incentives like government allowances and higher wages for certain jobs can help alleviate hunger, but lower-income residents aren’t as fortunate.

Grocery stores aren’t experiencing the food shortages seen at the pandemic’s start, but the effects of potential summer supply chain disruptions could mean whatever problems southern Canadians face grocery shopping this season will be worse for northern residents.

“When people rely on social assistance or income assistance, and they are living paycheck to paycheck ... you can’t stock up on three months worth of groceries,” Solotki said.

The lack of options and lack of freshness sold in stores can be a problem too.

“Instead of bringing trucks up the highway, full of potatoes and carrots and onions, we should look at growing a lot of things locally,” Inuvialuit gardener Lucy Kuptana told HuffPost Canada.

However, Arctic crop-growing for sustenance isn’t as widespread as it could be.

“This is our tester year. Can we be a farm instead of a greenhouse?”- RAY SOLOTKI

One of the barriers is apprehension over gardening from newbies, which Solotki hopes will be less daunting over time. Maybe by trying to grow carrots or another vegetable during the pandemic, they can slowly build up their confidence in crop-growing, she suggested.

Another barrier Solotki and Kuptana list is the after-effects of colonialism. The location of the greenhouse is closely associated with a now-demolished residential school.

“If [locals have a gardening background], it might have come from residential schools. So it has a negative connotation,” Solotki said.

                                                          ALONG WITH GREENHOUSES

DRESS CODES ARE RULING CLASS HEGEMONY
Americans have increasingly embraced Black Lives Matter. Will employers let them do so at work?
Starbucks now allows employees to show support for Black Lives Matter PROVIDING STAFF WITH READY MADE T-SHIRTS, BUTTONS ETC. — but some companies say it violates their dress codes

Published: June 17, 2020 By Meera Jagannathan

Surveys show a dramatic increase in Americans’ support for the Black Lives Matter movement over time. JUSTIN SULLIVAN/GETTY IMAGES

As support for the Black Lives Matter movement grows, companies with a public commitment to racial justice are grappling with how to address the matter internally — and some employees are speaking out.

Starbucks SBUX, -0.18% on Friday reversed an earlier decision to prohibit workers from wearing Black Lives Matter apparel on the job, announcing that the company would be designing a new T-shirt for employees emblazoned with a dozen-plus protest signs, including “Black Lives Matter” and “No justice, no peace.”

“Until these arrive, we’ve heard you want to show your support, so just be you,” company executives wrote in a blog post. “Wear your BLM pin or t-shirt. We are so proud of your passionate support of our common humanity.” The employee-led Starbucks Black Partner Network and allies created the shirt “to recognize the historic significance of this time,” they added. “Together, we’re saying: Black Lives Matter and it’s going to take ALL of us, working together, to affect change.”

Y-Vonne Hutchinson, the CEO and founder of the diversity and inclusion consulting firm ReadySet, told MarketWatch it was “great news” that Starbucks had listened to its employees and customers — but added that she thought “this stumble demonstrates the need for deeper change within Starbucks.”

“It does signal a fundamental lack of understanding around the Black Lives Matter movement, the issues of systemic racism, and Starbucks’ role as a popular brand and employer,” she said. “I hope they learn from this situation and use it as a catalyst to begin that process of transformation.”

Employment lawyer Paula Brantner, the principal and president of PB Work Solutions, said Starbucks’ move was “very responsive to both the moment and what their partners want their company to stand for.” “The statement is consistent with the Starbucks brand and what I understand of their culture, which shows that companies should be prepared to listen to what their employees want and not just impose the views of corporate management or restrictive rules that will cause employees to chafe or speak out publicly in opposition,” she said.

The policy change came after backlash to a BuzzFeed News report about an internal company memo that advised Black Lives Matter clothing and accessories did not adhere to Starbucks’ dress code policy — and explained that “agitators who misconstrue the fundamental principles of Black Lives Matter movement” might “intentionally repurpose them to amplify divisiveness.” The company’s dress code prohibits any button or pin that “interferes with safety or threatens to harm customer relations or otherwise unreasonably interferes with Starbucks public image,” as well as pins or buttons “that advocate a political, religious or personal issue,” the memo said.

Some Starbucks workers who spoke with BuzzFeed called the company’s initial decision “surprising and disappointing” — particularly given Starbucks’ public support for racial-equity causes — and said it made their voices feel “muted,” pointing out that the company had allowed accessories and shirts that celebrate LGBTQ rights. The ban spawned a #BoycottStarbucks hashtag that went viral.

A Starbucks spokesperson told MarketWatch on Thursday that the company was “committed to doing our part in ending systemic racism.”
Companies can have dress codes, but they can’t be discriminatory

There’s no federal law, and there are only a handful of state laws, “that potentially protect an employee’s right to speak out at work about an important social issue,” Brantner said. And while companies are allowed to have dress codes, they’re not allowed to enforce them in racially discriminatory ways, she added. “Of course, that would be against the law if a black employee was fired for wearing [a Black Lives Matter shirt] but a non-black employee was not terminated for wearing something similar,” such as an “All Lives Matter” shirt, she said.

The nonprofit employee-rights organization Workplace Fairness, which Brantner previously advised and led, notes that “dress code policies must target all employees, not just you.” “While employers have a fair amount of latitude in enforcing dress code provisions, if you feel that your privacy rights have been violated by your employer or believe the enforcement of the dress code is discriminatory, contact your state department of labor, or a private attorney for more information,” the organization says.

There might not be a legal remedy in cases that don’t show clear-cut discrimination, Brantner said. But companies are fairly susceptible in the court of public opinion to being called out for this kind of behavior, she added, “so that’s probably the way to go at the moment.”

‘This country is going through a major change’

Starbucks baristas aren’t the only public-facing employees who have struggled to express support for the Black Lives Matter movement at work. Quinton Desamours, an 18-year-old from Lehigh Acres, Fla., says he resigned from his Publix supermarket job this month after an assistant manager asked him at the beginning of his shift June 6 to remove a face mask bearing the acronym “BLM.”

The manager said that he didn’t personally have a problem with the mask, Desamours told MarketWatch, but added that he wasn’t yet sure where the company stood on the issue — a statement Desamours said he found “disturbing.” The teen said the manager also told him he was endangering himself and others who worked there, and said Desamours couldn’t go back to work with the mask on. “But that was my mask, so I decided to leave,” he said.

‘I know how people try to twist [Black Lives Matter] into a political statement, but the basis of the movement is equality.’— Quinton Desamours, a former Publix employee

While the supermarket chain does prohibit masks with “non-Publix messaging,” Desamours claims that rule wasn’t strictly enforced at his store, citing coworkers’ masks displaying a floral design and a comic strip.

He later called to resign from his employer of a month and a half. A district manager called a few days later to apologize and offer his position back, he said, saying that his resignation hadn’t gone through yet. But Desamours said he no longer wanted to work there.

“This country is going through a major change, and I didn’t want to be a part of a company that doesn’t want to be a part of the change,” he said. “I know how people try to twist [Black Lives Matter] into a political statement, but the basis of the movement is equality, and that’s how I saw it — and that’s what I told them.”

Publix did not return a MarketWatch request for comment on Desamours’ account. But in response to an inquiry about a similar incident, a message posted on Publix’s customer-service Twitter TWTR, -0.46% account Friday said: “We have ordered a substantial number of face coverings to provide to our associates as part of our mandatory facial covering policy. Given the impact demand has had on availability, we have allowed associates to wear medical/surgical masks, dust masks and cloth face coverings until their uniform face coverings arrive in the coming days. Our uniform policy does not permit non-Publix messaging.”

“Our focus remains on ensuring a welcoming work and shopping environment for all associates and customers,” the company added, linking to a page that noted Publix’s $1 million donation to National Urban League affiliates alongside CEO Todd Jones’s note to associates about racial injustice and diversity.


Quinton Desamours, 18, says he resigned from his supermarket job this month after being asked to remove a face mask bearing the acronym ‘BLM.’ COURTESY OF QUINTON DESAMOURS

In a similar incident on June 5, a Martin’s Super Market employee in Granger, Ind., said he quit his job after allegedly being told he couldn’t wear the “Black Lives Matter” mask he had worn during two of his shifts.

“Today I was informed by my store manager that there had been so many customer complaints filed against me for wearing it that the corporate office was instructing me not to wear it. Meanwhile, Martins has made no statement in solidarity of its black workers or customers,” Avery Worrell wrote in a Facebook FB, 0.45% post.

“Some may say I was violating company policy for using them as a ‘platform,’” he added, “but I believe Martin’s should speak out and actively combat racism especially because they serve a largely white consumer base and these tend to be the people who need to hear it the most.”

Martin’s did not return a MarketWatch request for comment. A spokeswoman told the South Bend Tribune that the company stood in support of racial equality, and that “respect is one of our core values, and as such, all of our associates have the responsibility to create a supportive and welcoming environment that values every individual.”

Dennis Eidson, the interim president and CEO of Martin’s parent SpartanNash, recently called on Americans to “step up and do more to eradicate racism,” and said the company would continue providing workers with opportunities to complete “dignity and respect training and unconscious bias training.”
Support for Black Lives Matter has grown in recent weeks

Surveys show a dramatic increase in Americans’ support for the Black Lives Matter movement over time. A Yahoo News/YouGov poll this month, for example, found that 57% of U.S. adults had a “very or somewhat favorable” view of the movement. In contrast, just 27% of U.S. adults in a 2016 YouGov poll said they “strongly or somewhat” approved of the movement.

The recent protests stemming from George Floyd’s killing appear to have galvanized considerable support for Black Lives Matter: A June 10 New York Times article, citing data from the survey-research firm Civiqs, reported that support for the movement had grown in the previous two weeks by almost as much as it had in the last two years.

“It seems that more people in the public are endorsing and making the statement that black lives matter rather than saying, ‘I’m part of a movement or part of an organization’ or any kind of connotation that goes with that,” Quinetta Roberson, a Villanova University professor of management who specializes in diversity and inclusion, told MarketWatch.

“It’s an absolute statement — black lives matter — so I think that is what’s being said,” Roberson added. “Once it starts getting into interpretation and more relative and more evaluative, that’s where we start to see the controversy.”

‘Are businesses hiring, promoting, supporting their black employees? Are they respecting their black customers? That’s the kind of systemic change that seems to be happening, but I think it’s going to take time to see how real it is.’— Y-Vonne Hutchinson, the CEO and founder of the diversity and inclusion consulting firm ReadySet

Those three words have become “more mainstream,” Brantner said. “People are pushing back on the perception of Black Lives Matter as a radical or violent movement, and not letting its identity be smeared by those who are uncomfortable with what it represents,” she said.

Brands, meanwhile, are cognizant of “the power of social-justice messaging,” Hutchinson said. She pointed to Nike’s NKE, 0.99% soaring sales after the company backed ex-NFL player Colin Kaepernick in his protest against racial injustice and police brutality.

“Marketers and brand managers are paying attention to that, so the messaging has on the corporate side changed,” she said. “I still don’t know what that means for real corporate practices in terms of where the rubber meets the road: Are businesses hiring, promoting, supporting their black employees? Are they respecting their black customers? That’s the kind of systemic change that seems to be happening, but I think it’s going to take time to see how real it is.”

That change, she added, includes supporting employees who choose to publicly support Black Lives Matter at work.

“They’ve made their statements, they’ve contributed money or tried to put in support systems,” Roberson agreed. “But what’s the next thing? How do they start to actually change the culture or the structure of their organizations so that these things get addressed in a sustainable way?”

Companies will have to answer for when their treatment of employees is at odds with the public image they’ve cultivated, Brantner said. “When a company comes out and talks about the tragic events and how they support their black employees and they’re investing in communities … if there are incidents within the company that don’t match that, I think that’s where companies are going to be the most vulnerable right now.”
‘They just have to put some muscle behind that decision’

Hutchinson doesn’t buy arguments that policies governing employees’ Black Lives Matter attire are meant to keep workers safe. Store managers and employees should be comfortable calling the authorities or booting customers who harass their coworkers, she said.

“They’re not obligated to serve the person who doesn’t align with their values or who doesn’t treat their employees well — they just have to put some muscle behind that decision,” she said. “If you have someone who’s [wearing a Black Lives Matter pin] and who doesn’t have that kind of support, that’s when it gets dangerous.”

Hutchinson said it wasn’t on black employees — “who in many cases are bearing the brunt of this systemic, institutional racism,” and often have less power at work — to lead the charge for changing the rules. That’s a job for workers with privilege, she said, who can leverage their power as allies.

Desamours, who is headed to ASA College in Miami to play basketball in the fall, said he was in a financially stable place that made his resignation possible. But he acknowledged that many others are not in the same position.

“I know a lot of people may put up with discrimination or racism or inequality at work, but they have to stay — they need to do what they have to do to pay their bills,” he said. “I’m glad I was able to take a stand and be a voice for people who can’t always do that.”

How activist investors***  risk triggering even more automation, job losses and wealth inequality

 ESG (environmental, social and governance) investors’ blanket demands may have unintended consequences

*** THINK CARL ICHAN TRUMP'S PAL NOT RALPH  NADER

Published: June 16, 2020 By Derek Horstmeyer and Lisa Gring-Pemble

A robot cleans the floors at a supermarket. ASSOCIATED PRESS



As COVID-19 has shut down much of the U.S. economy, socially conscious investors are making a new wave of ESG (environmental, social and governance) demands. Companies are now being asked by their shareholders to both provide greater disclosure regarding their pandemic response and to improve worker safety generally.

While it is heartening to see investors place their attention and emphasis behind enhancing working conditions, if their ambitions are narrowly defined then such demands may have the unintended consequence of creating additional unemployment through increased automation.

Economists already predict that upwards of 42% of the jobs lost in the coronavirus pandemic may be gone for good. In the retail space particularly, companies are looking for any and all excuses to cut costs. In this, and other industries where the risk of automation is high, ESG investors must do more than make demands related to improving worker safety.

The drawback to the current ESG investor approach is that when they require more protection of workers’ health in isolation, CEOs may turn to the least costly option to address it. Economists often observe that in life, or business, there are no perfect solutions, only trade-offs in the face of scarcity. This yields a difficult situation for well-intentioned investors. While their desire is for companies to provide safe working conditions for employees, the reality may be increased unemployment and widening inequality. Because employee safety and health are added costs that eat into a firm’s bottom line, a CEO who is pressed on the issue of worker health may be more inclined — on the margin — to trade a human employee for one that can never get sick (i.e. a robot).



For example, while the pandemic may have forced Gap Inc. US:GPS to temporarily shutter its brick and mortar operations, it created a dramatic spike in online purchases that, given social distance guidelines, could not be met safely by humans. What to do? Gap’s response has been to speed the acquisition and implementation of robots that assemble orders in warehouses. So far the company is treating this as positive step towards ensuring employee safety as opposed to a replacement mechanism. Yet given that one robot can do the work of four people, along with the endless search for efficiency present in the industry, automated replacement seems inevitable.

Demands by investors for greater worker protections need to be tailored for the particular situation an employee faces.

Examples like this from the retail sector should give pause to the ESG crowd and illustrate why blanket calls for employee safety are not sufficiently nuanced. Demands by investors for greater worker protections need to be tailored for the particular situation an employee faces in terms of the risk of automation of their position. The same goes for those in the airline industry and any other industry where automation is a possible substitute for human labor if the price of labor increases (in this case due to safety costs).


More broadly, investors interested in a more optimal outcome for employees must be ready and willing to engage management on a much wider set of issues. These include unionization, severance, extension of health insurance, unemployment benefits. To do otherwise could result in a situation where companies automate at a quickened clip, and kick employees to the curb with no protections, resources, or means of recourse.

Lest anyone think ESG investing is little more than a passing fad, or their potential to influence overblown, pay close to the actions of BlackRock US:BLK and its Chairman Larry Fink. BlackRock has almost $7 billion in assets under management, so when Fink speaks the business community listens. Early this year, Fink penned a letter advising CEOs that his company has placed sustainability at the center of its investment approach. While this particular action was heavily motivated by climate change risks, it is clear that the firm’s thinking extends more broadly.

In closing his message, Fink stated that “companies must be deliberate and committed to embracing purpose and serving all stakeholders.” It is the same belief we hold at the George Mason University Business for a Better World Center, and the mindset we try to instill in our students. In the wake of this crisis, it is also the same value system that is motivating investors.

The most high-profile instance, though, may be Amazon.com US:AMZN and its Whole Foods Market subsidiary. While Amazon is no stranger to pressure from government officials and unions on workplace safety, some of the most stinging criticism has been from its own shareholders. Prior to its annual shareholder meeting, an activist group of Amazon shareholders, including pension fund managers, took the company to task for its apparent lax approach to managing worker health in light of COVID-19. Some even went as far as to hold their own shareholder meeting, designed specifically to air grievances around workplace safety and precautions not taken to ensure employee health. While no concrete steps have been taken in response, it’s clear the reaction from shareholders has not gone unnoticed.

In recent weeks we have seen much greater attention being paid to solutions that may aid workplace safety. Robots are cleaning surfaces using UV and scanning employees and patrons for fevers, and checkout counters are self-sterilizing. These advances are all being implemented with both employee and customer health in mind. They aim to stop the spread of the virus while reducing the risk of exposure to employees by removing them from the cleaning process — a laudable development in and of itself. Our concern is that the removal isn’t temporary, and ultimately the robot will serve as a permanent substitute for the labor of an employee.

Derek Horstmeyer is an associate professor of finance at the George Mason University School of Business. Lisa Gring-Pemble is an associate professor at the George Mason University School of Business and the founder of Business for a Better World Center at George Mason.

More:As boomers hand over the keys to the stock market, sustainability-minded younger investors let their consciences lead

Plus: These 4 groups of funders are uniquely positioned to help close the racial wealth gap

Special delivery: activists urge France to rein in Amazon

Reuters June 17, 2020

Climate activists attend a demonstration against Amazon near the Bercy Finance Ministry in Paris

PARIS (Reuters) - Environmental campaigners delivered a 12-foot (3.6-metre) tall mock-up of an Amazon parcel to the French finance ministry on Wednesday to demand that the government rein in the e-commerce giant's expansion in France.

The campaigners - who did not have official permission for their protest - parked a rental van outside the ministry, and unloaded panels which they then assembled into a box, as security guards looked on.

The box was decorated with the Amazon logo and the slogan: "#StopAmazon". The campaigners also used spray paint and stencils to write the phrase: "Amazon: the state must say stop" on the pavement in front of the ministry.

"We put this parcel in front of the ministry to challenge the government about the dangers of the expansion of e-commerce in France," said Alma Dufour, a campaigner with the French chapter of green group Friends of the Earth.

The activists behind the protest say Amazon promotes a culture of consumption which hurts the environment, and that it squeezes out small businesses.

Amazon said in a statement it believed e-commerce was less harmful for the environment than traditional retail and that it was committed to reaching the threshold of net zero carbon for all its businesses by 2040.

It said it had created over 30,000 direct and indirect jobs in France in the past 20 years, including at small businesses which trade on the Amazon platform.

(Reporting by Christian Lowe; Editing by Mike Collett-White)

As war and disease ravage Yemen, $1.35 billion in aid isn't enough

Amjad Tadros,CBS News•June 17, 2020

FILE PHOTO: Women watch as a nurse attends to their relative who is being treated at an intensive care unit of a hospital for the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Sanaa

Women watch as a nurse attends to their relative who is being treated at an intensive care unit of a hospital for the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Sanaa, Yemen, June 11, 2020. REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah

Amman, Jordan — United Nations' humanitarian chief Mark Lowcock promised during a virtual donors conference this month that the U.N. would "not abandon the people of Yemen." But the ever-expanding need for help in Yemen, as the war-torn country grapples with a spiralling coronavirus outbreak, cholera and widespread malnutrition, is quickly out-pacing the charity from abroad.

The conference saw international donors pledge $1.35 billion, far short of the $2.41 billion target and only half of what was raised last year, as donor nations struggle to keep their own economies afloat amid pandemic shutdowns.

Why 48,000 Yemeni women are at risk of death in child birth

Aid agencies say the funding shortfall, combined with the country's virtually immeasurable COVID-19 epidemic, will make a grim situation even more dire, and they're sounding the alarm.

"Failing to keep up"

"Donors' pledges to Yemen are failing to keep up with the growing need in the country," Jose Maria Vera, Executive Director of the international aid group Oxfam, said in a statement, noting that Yemen was "already the world's biggest humanitarian crisis after more than five years of conflict."

Vera warned that Yemen is facing a coronavirus outbreak with "barely half" of the health facilities in the country even functioning.

Oxfam noted also that the COVID-19 pandemic's economic impact in Yemen — already one of the poorest countries in the world — has been multiplied because Yemenis rely so heavily on cash transfers from friends and relatives abroad.

The global health crisis has ushered an "unprecedented decline in the flow of remittances to Yemen – a vital source of money for millions." The World Bank estimates that one in ten people in Yemen rely entirely on such money transfers to meet their basic needs.

Saudi Arabia co-hosted the U.N. donors conference and pledged $500 million itself. But $300 million of that donation was to be delivered to the kingdom's own government-run relief agency, rather than NGOs that work on the ground in Yemen.

The United States pledged $225 million during the conference, and U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs David Schenker said Washington would be, "working to provide additional funding in the coming weeks."

But more than two dozen international aid agencies have now joined together to warn the U.S. that "the window of opportunity to help mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic is closing." A joint open letter, sent to Acting Administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) John Barsa, warned that delays in funding aid projects in Yemen would be "devastating."

The U.N.'s World Food Program (WFP) is the biggest aid organization providing support to the Yemeni people. It provides general food assistance to more than 12 million people at an estimated cost of $837 million for six months (March 2020-August 2020). Faced with funding shortages, in April the WFP began providing families with food every other month instead of monthly.

2019–20 coronavirus pandemic

Workers carry food aid distributed by the World Food Program at a warehouse in Sanaa, Yemen, April 21, 2020. WFP/Mohammed Awadh

"This allows us to stretch resources and to maintain a safety net for as long as possible for the vulnerable Yemeni families who rely on WFP food assistance," Abeer Etefa, the WFP's senior spokeswoman for the Middle East and North Africa, told CBS News. "We hope that more contributions will be coming through the year, because the needs are growing in Yemen."

Etefa said that while the international community has provided an unprecedented level of support for Yemen over the last five years, it's still not enough, and its work has been complicated by the "problematic operating environment in areas controlled by the Sanaa-based authorities."

"Complicated place to operate"

Like all aid organizations in Yemen, WFP must navigate between the warring factions that control different parts of the country to keep its work going.

"Yemen is an incredibly complicated place to operate," Etefa said, noting constantly "shifting frontlines, poor infrastructure — now a pandemic," and on top of all that, "an environment of bureaucratic interference."

YEMEN-CONFLICT

Smoke billows following an airstrike by Saudi-led coalition in the Yemeni capital Sanaa, June 16, 2020. MOHAMMED HUWAIS/AFP/Getty

In the country's south, the separatist Southern Transitional Council (STC) seized a cash consignment estimated at around $250 million intended for the central bank in Aden on Saturday.

The rebels claimed the seizure was "part of several measures to end sources of corruption and to prevent the use of public money in supporting terrorism."

Meanwhile, the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels who control much of the north of Yemen, where 70% of the WFP's work is done, are demanding direct access to international donor money.

"We asked the U.N. to pay us in cash instead of the expired and corrupt assistance that they give to the Yemeni people," Houthi leader Mohammed Ali al-Houthi told the BBC on Sunday.

While there's broad consensus among aid organizations and the leaders of the various political factions in Yemen that the only lasting solution is a ceasefire, few are able — or willing — to name those responsible for the country's suffering.

Yemen's civil war is also a proxy war: The Iranian-backed Houthis who control the northern, most populous part of the country, including the capital Sanaa, are pitted against the government recognized by the U.S. and the United Nations. That government, which still controls a significant swath in the south, is being defended with devastating military power by a Saudi-led coalition.

"The Saudis are constantly demanding praise from the aid agencies for providing money for food and plastic sheeting so displaced Yemenis can build tents," one international aid official told CBS News on the condition of anonymity, "yet they get upset if we dare to discuss why the Yemeni homes were destroyed in the first place."

4-Day Work Week: Guysborough, Nova Scotia Municipality Office Tries It Out

The COVID-19 pandemic is bringing about a serious change to work culture.

By Premila D'Sa

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit Canada, Barry Carroll’s small office, like many others across the country, had to adapt.

Carroll is the chief administrative officer of the municipal office of Guysborough, Nova Scotia, where he runs the day-to-day operations of a 60-person staff. While many in Carroll’s situation were stressing over the logistics of running an operation without a physical office, he realized the pandemic presented an opportunity to do something he’s always wanted to — rejig the entire set up.


That’s when Carroll decided he would introduce a pilot program to test out a four-day work week.

“Several years ago we started to focus a great deal on the mental health of our employees,” Carroll told HuffPost Canada. “We’re always looking for something to have a big impact, we thought we could make a real difference here with this particular opportunity.”
CENTRALITALLIANCE VIA GETTY IMAGESA N.S. municipal office is running a pilot 4-day work week program.


A four-day work week, he said, involved his staff still coming in and doing their regular jobs, but the extra day off meant additional time to rest, and one less day they’d have to commute in for work.

“It seems to be something that would be great for young families, or daycare parents,” he said.

Before starting the pilot, which officially began June 16, Carroll had already tested some of the logistics out. During the pandemic, his staff were allowed to split their week — two days at the office, and two days working from home. Carroll figured he could split his staff into two groups, and let them divide up the week.

Under the pilot, Carroll has half of his staffers work from Monday to Thursday. The second group works from Tuesday to Friday. Which means on Mondays and Fridays, the Guysborough office only has half its staff — but they still manage to keep all their services running.

“Honestly, during COVID-19, we found all kinds of efficiencies,” said Carroll. “People were in the workplace taking on jobs that they don’t traditionally do.”
‘I think everyone’s got a bounce in their step’

On the first day of their 4-day week, Carroll already saw the impact of working toward a longer weekend had on his employees.

“I think everyone’s got a bounce in their step,” said Carroll. “From the day we brought the idea to the full staff, everybody was really excited about it.”

Carroll doesn’t think it’s a radical idea, he just thought about what would work best for his staff. And his staff seemed to agree with him — they were given the choice to opt out of the program and continue their five-day week instead, but not a single person picked that option. Carroll said if there’s something good that’s come out of the pandemic, it’s this.

“A five-day work week and other models have been in place since the industrial ages,” he said. “And you know, we’ve changed, our workplaces have changed.”

Watch: What Would A 4-Day Work Week Mean For Canada? Story continues below.
https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/4-day-work-week-canada_ca_5ee94a75c5b6dfbb038654b7?ncid=other_trending_qeesnbnu0l8&utm_campaign=trending

Clare Kumar, a work and productivity expert who’s made it her mission to make corporate workplaces have “a more compassionate view of their working employees,” could not agree more.

Kumar said the current five-day model was created to suit the needs of the industrial revolution, where workers were mostly doing repetitive tasks. The five-day work week was first implemented in the U.S. in 1908, so that Jewish communities could celebrate Sabbath and workers could take a break from their previous seven-day work week.

Factory employers during the industrial age started to run into problems when workers started showing up inebriated because they didn’t have enough time off for recreational activities, and more importantly, recovering from recreational activities. And so they changed the system, giving workers two days off with the expectation that they would show up, in a proper state, for the start of their work week.

Kumar said the five-day model doesn’t account for the fact that as jobs have changed — not just because they require more skills, but also that employees commuting times are getting increasingly longer. 

COURTESY OF CLARE KUMARWork and productivity expert Clare Kumar says the pandemic has given people time to reflect on their work culture.

The pandemic, which has forced many to work from home, also meant that people, much like Carroll, had more time to reflect on why they were working the way they were.

“We haven’t been for a long time, we’ve evolved into a society that’s not very reflective and the more reflective we can be, the more we can say, ‘huh, is this working for me when I really think about it?’ said Kumar. “We do need an evolution and some people are further along that curve than others.”

As countries around the world make their way through the COVID-19 infection curve, government officials are starting to address ways to restore their economies. In New Zealand, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern suggested a four-day week as a way of doing just that, giving people more time to travel and spend money into the country’s tourism industry, which has absorbed the financial brunt of the pandemic.

“Ultimately, that really sits between employers and employees,” Arden said in a Facebook live. “But as I’ve said, there’s lots of things we’ve learned about COVID and just that flexibility of people working from home, the productivity that can be driven out of that.”
We do need an evolution and some people are further along that curve than others.Clare Kumar, productivity expert

In Japan, Microsoft implemented a four-day work week, giving employees Fridays off, and found that workers productivity went up by 40 per cent. The move even cut Microsoft Japan some slack — they saved 23 per cent in electricity costs and found that even one day less of work saved a significant amount of paper.

A 2018 Angus Reid poll found that half of Canadians would prefer a four-day work week, even if it meant longer work days.

“Investing in humanity and respecting humanity will generate greater productivity, greater results, greater retention, less attrition, all of those things,” said Kumar. Shealso noted that one less day of commuting to work could even mean an improvement in the condition of roadways, transit and other infrastructure.

“By changing the hours to some degree you can change the pressure on rush hour, a little bit,” she said. “And also hopefully people would actually get some time to relax, play, restore, build relationships.”

IM NATURE VIA GETTY IMAGES 

A four-day work week could possibly reduce the strain on transit services caused by rush hour.

Meanwhile in Guysborough, Carroll didn’t expect a pilot program for his small Nova Scotia municipal office would garner so much attention. He informed taxpayers about the new system, he said, and local news picked it up. Then all the major outlets followed.

“Since then it’s taken a life of its own,” said Carroll. While he said his staff didn’t go into it to become a national case study, he hopes their initiative might help bring about a change in work culture. -

“You want people to produce for you these days, they have to want to produce.”

At the end of January 2021, Carroll said his office will evaluate the success of the pilot. But he’s sure that while some problems might pop up, the overall outcome will be positive.

“People are so dedicated,” he said. “That’s one of the basis as to why I knew this would work — the dedication of our staff. That’s the reason this would be successful.”

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