Union & LSNYC Reach Agreement on Office Screening Procedures for Staff, Clients, & other Visitors

Management is currently developing a procedure and mechanism to pre-screen anyone (staff and visitors) who plans to physically enter any of our office locations. The screening tool(s) will require staff and visitors to answer a number of standard questions, including the minimum required by NYS and the CDC, within 24 hours prior to coming into the office. Staff responses will be viewed by HR designees, who will either approve or disapprove the visit. We are exploring a means by which to use SharePoint for our intraoffice use and visitors will use Survey Monkey or another tool that can be accessed by external users. SignupGenius will be used to track who actually comes to the office. As staff and others are currently coming into our offices on an as-needed basis, we will implement screening as soon as possible.

Additionally, LSNYC management and the union will work together to enhance the minimum screening promptly, with the assistance of a health and safety expert, for both staff and others.

These procedures will include the following aspects or considerations, among others:

• Accessibility to clients with limited English proficiency, those who cannot read or write in any language, and those with any physical or cognitive barriers to understanding and completing the survey;
• Accessibility to clients without access to the internet and/or text-messaging capability;
• Details about the process for distributing, conducting, and reviewing surveys, including technology under consideration;
• Identification of the proper set of symptoms or exposures that the survey will inquire about;
• Any involvement of LSNYC employees in the screening process;
• The steps LSNYC HR or other agents would take to disapprove of a particular visit and what explanation and intervention clients receive as a result;
• How to preserve clients’ interests in the event that clients are denied access to their casehandler;
• How a LSNYC employee can be assured a screening was completed;
• How these screening tools might be used for contact tracing;
• Privacy and security concerns;
• And other such issues.