Hub employees say social distancing is lacking, there is a temperature check gap and masks aren’t required.

A FedEx executive said Monday around 10 hub employees have tested positive for COVID-19.

FedEx disputed some but not all of the workers’ claims, saying employee safety is its top priority.

Even before learning about workplace safety whistleblower protections, Annette Clark was ready to speak out.

Like thousands of distribution workers across the country, the 62-year-old has been drafted to the frontlines of the coronavirus crisis.

Her work as a material handler at the FedEx Express World Hub in Memphis is deemed essential. But Clark feels anything but safe during the pandemic. She’s not alone.

More than 23,000 people across the country have signed a petition, launched March 22, voicing safety concerns on behalf of FedEx employees and the risk they face through "direct contact with people." The Change.org petition calls for hazard pay for FedEx personnel working during the pandemic.

Since the petition's launch, FedEx pilot Capt. Paul Fox, of Florida, died from complications due to the coronavirus. The pilots' union said Wednesday that it knows of 23 FedEx pilots who have tested positive for COVID-19 thus far.

In Memphis, Clark and three other FedEx employees fear the risk of exposure among the hub’s approximately 11,000 workers — because, they say, social distancing is effectively not taking place, temperature checks are uneven and the use of masks is optional.

These employees claim social distancing is not taking place in an array of settings. Not in the breakroom, where Clark said she last saw at least 200 people gathered on April 2 and decided to stop using the vending machine. Not on the sorting line, where workers process thousands of packages per hour. And not in the small ground support vehicles used to transport workers across the 880-acre site to load and unload hundreds of cargo airplanes every day.

“It’s not safe,” Clark said of her work environment. “If it’s wrong and you know it’s wrong, somebody’s gotta speak up.”

FedEx, in response to these workers’ claims, insists the safety of all its employees has always been its top priority.

“Nothing is ever more important in this company than the safety of our team members, especially now during these unprecedented times,” said Shannon Brown, senior vice president of Eastern Division U.S. Operations for FedEx Express, in an interview with The Commercial Appeal. “It’s very important I maintain the safety of my team members out there and make sure they have all the resources they need in order to do that.”

‘You can’t get your life back’

Brown said Monday that around 10 hub employees had tested positive for COVID-19. It's the first time FedEx has confirmed cases at its Memphis hub.

FedEx’s measures to keep hub employees safe, according to Brown, include frequently cleaning vehicles and areas such as restrooms and screening facilities, installing sanitizing stations and adding 20 employees to monitor the movement of hub employees and enforce social distancing. Those flouting social distancing rules will be followed up with like any other type of disciplinary issue, he said.

FedEx material handler Raquel King said her work environment shows otherwise.

King said last week she works within four feet of another co-worker, in a small space where they check in and out equipment from other workers all day long — with no cleaning supplies provided.

"We don’t have any disinfectants, cleaners, nothing to kill the germs with, nothing to wipe down the computer doors," she said. "Everything we touch, every day, all day, there’s nothing there to clean or disinfect."

Brown said claims that FedEx doesn’t have enough sanitization supplies on hand isn’t true, pointing out sanitizing stations available throughout the hub. He added that FedEx has about 167 of these stations, which each hold a gallon of sanitizer, that employees "just can't miss."

Meanwhile, Clark said her days are mostly spent in ground support vehicles filled with passengers sitting closer to one another than they would in a car.

She said she wants to know why, if workers can be made to wear a fluorescent yellow shirt and earplugs for safety, coronavirus protection measures can’t be similarly enforced.

“You can get a hearing aid if you lose your hearing. But you can’t get your life back if you get caught with this disease, this virus. You may live, you may not live,” she said.

Patrice Green, another material handler, said she thinks FedEx is trying its best to make sure employees stay safe and social distance when possible, even though “there’s not too much social distancing that you can do” when unloading and moving heavy freight.

One way for FedEx to improve safety, King said, is to make it mandatory for hub employees to wear gloves and masks, which the company is supplying.

FedEx had around 100,000 to 150,000 masks from past public health crises already stockpiled for employees who wanted them before the COVID-19 pandemic began, Brown said.

FedEx said Friday it ordered more masks for employees “in anticipation of changes to CDC guidance,” with many having already been distributed and “more to follow in the coming days and weeks.” The company said employees should notify their managers if there is a lack of supplies.

However, FedEx does not require hub employees to wear masks, Brown said.

The CDC advises using cloth face coverings to slow the virus’ spread “and help people who may have the virus and do not know it from transmitting it to others.” It also recommends wearing cloth face coverings “where other social distancing measures are difficult to maintain.”

Green and King said last week was the first time FedEx provided masks and gloves to their teams. Before then, everyone brought their own masks and gloves, Green said Thursday. She also described employees using their own Clorox cleaning cloths to disinfect equipment.

“If you had the money, you bought it and brought your own,” she said. “If you didn’t, you just go on about your business.”

A global supply chain, a potential chain of transmission

Dr. Amesh Adalja is a physician whose work as a senior scholar with the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security focuses on infectious diseases and pandemic preparedness. He said that it’s important for a workplace of any size adhere to social distancing — and especially the case for a workplace of the Memphis hub’s size.

“If social distancing isn’t in place, it could pose a risk to transmit. And you could have a chain of transmission. You can get multiple chains of transmissions within a group that big, if there’s not social distancing,” Adalja said.

Buses of workers crossing state lines daily also raise the stakes, he said.

“Social distancing becomes even more important because there’s different outbreaks in different parts of the country and different risks in different parts of the country,” Adalja said.

FedEx began busing approximately 200 workers from Bolivar County, Mississippi, roundtrip to the hub, five days a week, in March 2019.

Bolivar County has far fewer cases than Shelby County, Tennessee where the hub is located. But with a fraction of the population, Bolivar’s per capita rate is higher, at 212 cases per 100,000 people versus 142 per 100,000 people in Shelby, according to an April 14 New York Times analysis of health agency and hospital data.

FedEx reduced the number of people that can be on its Mississippi buses from 52 employees down to 25 per bus and added more buses to compensate, Brown said. That started “about three weeks ago.”

Adalja said he thinks with guidance from public health professionals, it’s possible to have even the behemoth FedEx operation conform with the requirements of social distancing.

The FedEx Express World Hub is the flagship facility in the Memphis logistic giant's global shipping network. It has played a large role in the company's distribution of testing kits and protective gear for COVID-19 relief efforts.

Material handlers play an important role in the hub's operation, often helping move packages and heavy freight via forklifts, tugs and other drivable equipment.

It’s not an isolated position. The equipment manned by material handlers transporting workers, known as “people movers,” remains tightly packed, King said.

“They need to be seated at least two seats apart, instead of crammed up together elbow-to-elbow breathing on each other,” she said.

FedEx said Wednesday it is limiting occupancy on “people movers” from the normal 11 or 12 riders to no more than six at once, with patrols monitoring for compliance. The company also said it is limiting occupancy on tugs.

When asked about these claims of social distancing not taking place, Brown, who began his FedEx career working at the Memphis hub, said FedEx's safety team is monitoring employees to make sure they comply with social distancing guidelines throughout the hub. The company has also said it's implemented measures to promote social distancing at security screenings and on employee shuttles.

Brown said he doesn’t think there are any hub areas where social distancing can’t happen to prevent further potential spread of COVID-19. For example, the FedEx hub has reworked its cafeteria space — or breakroom, as Clark calls it — to limit the number of people per booth or table, he said.

“No more than two people in a booth,” Brown said. “...A table for eight people, we maximized that to three (people per table).”

FedEx’s hub population could grow further during the pandemic. The hub has openings for part-time and temporary handlers posted on FedEx Express’ jobs website.

The COVID-19 era in workplace safety enforcement

The Tennessee Occupational Safety and Health Administration, known as TOSHA, typically regulates workplace safety, including at FedEx facilities, in accordance with federal law.

New guidance on workplace safety specific to COVID-19, which details controls that could protect workers at various risk levels, was recently issued by the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration. But the guidance is not enforceable, OSHA states at the outset of the manual.

Chris Cannon, spokesperson for the Tennessee Department of Labor, under which TOSHA resides, said there’s a possibility that could change.

In the event that research from the Department of Health and Centers for Disease Control “indicates current standards are not sufficient to protect life,” Cannon said the department has the option to propose new workplace safety and health regulations, to be mandated by law.

In Memphis, Mayor Jim Strickland’s “Safer at Home” order requires essential businesses to operate in a way that protects the health and safety of employees, the community, the general public and vendors, said Chief Legal Officer Jennifer Sink.

“Social distancing practices are critical to suppressing the spread of the virus,” Sink said.

Enforcement options for businesses that fail to comply with social distancing requirements include a misdemeanor citation, a nuisance abatement action and inspection by OSHA or the Shelby County Health Department, according to Sink.

At the federal level Monday, OSHA issued an enforcement response plan regarding “all investigations and inspections specifically related to the workplace hazard...causing the current COVID-19 pandemic.” The plan specifies procedures that local offices, such as TOSHA, must follow to inspect workplace-related COVID fatalities, imminent danger exposures and other complaints.

The Department of Labor also recently issued a reminder to employers that they cannot retaliate against workers for reporting unsafe conditions during the coronavirus pandemic.

Workers: Temperature checks uneven

FedEx was one of the first employers in Memphis to announce a positive COVID-19 case, of an employee at its corporate headquarters in March. The company said it “closed the office for a thorough cleaning and disinfecting.

Later, FedEx told employees it would institute temperature checks at the hub in addition to other preventative measures. Hub employees will be required to take a no-touch, thermal imaging temperature check before starting their shifts, FedEx said then. Those with temperatures 100.4 degrees or higher are sent home.

That aligns with what faculty director of the Global Supply Chain Institute at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, Ted Stank, said managers from among the institute’s 75 corporate partners have discussed with him, as best practices in COVID-19 workplace safety.

“They say what they’re doing in their operational areas is to maintain social distancing and temperature checking everyone and if anybody comes down, tests positive — they close that facility down and they clean it,” Stank said.

“If more than one person in a week, they’ll close that facility down for a week and thoroughly disinfect,” he added.

The hub hasn’t been closed. And Annette Clark, Patrice Green, Raquel King and another worker who did not want to be named, said there’s an issue with the temperature checks: They occur unevenly at best.

King, who works an afternoon shift as a material handler, said she has never had her temperature checked at the hub since the screening program started last month.

“Nothing has changed,” King said of the hub entry process. “I could be sick and come to work and go in and infect everyone I work around, because there is no one there to check it.”

Brown said the temperature screening facilities are used for day sort and night sort employees, who work during the hub's peak hours. These stations are up for "five or six hours" daily at two hub entry points, according to Brown, in which they are staffed with technicians and FedEx HR employees.

The employees entering the facility between the day and night sort peaks are at least getting checked at some point during the day if it's not on their way in, said FedEx spokesman Jim Masilak.

“Those individuals probably came in maybe after the majority of the people came in on the day (sort) side,” Brown said. “But at some point in time, they had to be checked."

Brown added that it is in his “best interest to ensure everyone gets tested so we catch it on the front end.”

Stank said he believes corporate leaders are intent on safety, but the demands of day-to-day operations are where things can potentially go awry.

“Supply chain people, from line-level people to managers are so focused on getting the job done,” Stank said. “I’m sure in their mind there’s this huge conflict between, 'Do I get that flight offloaded so that it can turn around and get back on its route or protect my people?'”

If there’s a plane full of medical equipment, for instance, that needs to be offloaded, Stank said, “Do we put people in danger and offload it quickly? I’m glad I’m not that operational manager trying to make that decision.”

But for Dr. Adalja, the physician and pandemic preparedness expert, the health of hub workers and the delivery of healthcare equipment shouldn’t be counterposed.

"Federal Express is not only just a workplace," he said. "It’s really essential right now, as we have an economic shutdown over most of this country, that their workforce remain healthy and feel safe, so that they can actually perform — because they play a really crucial role right now in the country."

Max Garland covers FedEx, logistics and health care for The Commercial Appeal. Reach him at max.garland@commercialappeal.com or 901-529-2651 and on Twitter @MaxGarlandTypes.

Sarah Macaraeg is an award-winning journalist who writes investigations, features and the occasional news story for The Commercial Appeal. She can be reached at sarah.macaraeg@commercialappeal.com, 901-529-2889 or on Twitter @seramak.