Villages-news.com has reported on the new Recreation Department policy of not requiring masks for situations in recreation centers where social distancing is not feasible. In fact, the new policy has just turned the task of checking Villager ID’s into a potential suicide mission for employees.
Furthermore, if the staff, themselves, don’t wear masks, a sick, maskless ID checker could infect hundreds, and indirectly, thousands of Villagers. While this potential death and suffering has been discussed, at length, on this site, what has not appeared here is a discussion of the financial risk of the new policy.
In addition to the death and suffering that the new policy will likely cause, the new policy could jeopardize the financial solvency of our amenity system. Sick employees (or their survivors) will be filing worker compensation claims. Even more costly, sick Villagers (or their survivors) will be filing lawsuits against the amenity system for negligently not following the recommendation of both the CDC and virtually every other expert in the field.
I won’t get into the merit of such lawsuits (which will depend on the facts), the intricacies of the ownership and administration of the amenity system, or the effectiveness of masks. But do not think for a moment that such worker compensation claims and lawsuits will have no chance of succeeding. For people interested in learning more, here is a link to one of many articles that have appeared on the general subject: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/28/business/businesses-coronavirus-liability.html For more, Google: “COVID-19 business liability”.
Scott Fenstermaker is a resident of the Village of Winifred.