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It appears from at least one recent survey that the loudest voices calling for an immediate “re-opening” of state businesses are in the minority.

In fact, according to Fishbowl — a workplace social network for verified employees — nearly 83 percent of Connecticut workers surveyed opposed the immediate call to reopen state workplaces.

For nearly two months, millions of employees have been working from home to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

In recent Fishbowl surveys, its researchers have discovered that 54 percent fear layoffs at their company; a decline in synergy with coworkers has been the biggest obstacle while working from home; 62 percent of working parents are unable to juggle childcare while working from home; 42 percent of workers drink while working from home; and according to teachers, less than half of students are showing up for their remote classes.

In its most recent survey, professionals on Fishbowl were asked: “If your state were to ‘re-open’ now, would you feel safe going to your workplace?”

Professionals could answer with Yes or No — and the survey ran April 22 through April 24. Respondents numbered 19,689 across the US, and included employees at companies such as EY, Deloitte, Accenture, Amazon, Edelman, Nike, Google, KPMG, and thousands of others.

Overall, 80.61 percent responded that they would not feel safe going back to work if their state were to reopen now, and in Connecticut, only 73 or 17.18 percent of the 425 responding replied in the affirmative, while 352 or 82.82 percent said No. And among states with at least 50 employee responses, New York finished with the lowest percentage of employees saying they would feel safe returning to work now, with just 14.64 percent.

Benefit Bump Coming

Governor Ned Lamont announced April 28 that the Connecticut Department of Labor (CTDOL) has successfully programmed its computer system and begun issuing the first round of weekly federal stimulus payments to filers receiving state unemployment benefits, with the first batch of payments having been issued this past weekend.

The additional $600 weekly payment, known as Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation, was created as part of the emergency response to the COVID-19 pandemic. It is retroactive to March 29 — and will be provided through July 25.

For those who already received unemployment benefits for previous weeks — such as April 4, 11, and 18 — the agency will be providing retroactive payments as a lump sum by the end of this week.

Claimants can check their online accounts on the CTDOL website at www.filectui.com and see the deposits were issued over the weekend. Those who receive payments through direct deposit should begin seeing the additional amount appearing in their bank accounts directly.

CTDOL continues to work nonstop to implement the remaining two recently established federal stimulus programs:

*Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA), which provides benefits for self-employed individuals among others, and

*Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC), a 13-week extension that allows eligible claimants to collect the additional weeks after exhausting the 26 weeks of state benefits.

The agency expects to begin accepting applications for PUA on April 30 and plans to have PEUC in operation by mid-May. Both programs will be retroactive.

Grocery Workers - First Responders

On April 27, Stop & Shop and the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW) issued a joint statement calling on federal and state governments to designate associates at grocery stores as “extended first responders” or “emergency personnel.”

Stop & Shop President Gordon Reid and UFCW International President Marc Perrone released a joint statement that said, in part:

“Stop & Shop workers, who are also UFCW members, across Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Jersey, and New York have worked to make sure that families have the food and groceries they need during these difficult times. Make no mistake, Stop & Shop associates are essential workers and they deserve essential protections.

“Stop & Shop and UFCW have worked together to provide these workers with benefits and protections during this health crisis, including emergency pay raises, additional paid sick leave, and access to KN95 masks and face shields, but even more can be done for these workers.

“We are urgently requesting our nation’s state and federal leaders temporarily designate these workers as first responders or emergency personnel. This critical status would help ensure our states’ essential grocery workers have priority access to testing, emergency childcare, and other protections to keep themselves and their families safe and healthy.”

Charter Stepping Up

Charter Communications, Inc recently announced a collaboration with Hiya, a provider of spam call protection, to promote a free anti-spam app for interested customers to help protect them against fraud and nuisance calls.

By downloading the Hiya app, Spectrum Mobile customers can take advantage of free features that help users identify spam calls, block individual numbers, and identify calls from businesses. Customers also can choose to subscribe to Hiya’s premium app for a fee to receive advanced features, including automatic spam call blocking.

According to Hiya’s recent State of the Call report, spam calls in the United States grew 108 percent from the previous year, with consumers receiving an average of 14 spam calls per month in 2019, up from seven spam calls per month in 2018. More information about downloading the Hiya app is available at www.spectrum.com/mobile/robocalls.

Charter also provides home phone customers with additional features to accept calls and block unwanted and anonymous calls, and block calls that appear to originate from numbers on the industry-developed Do-Not-Originate list, at no additional cost. More information is available at www.spectrum.com/home-phone.

Charter also announced a plan to permanently raise its minimum wage to $20 per hour over the next two years for all employees. An initial retroactive $1.50 increase will be implemented immediately for our hourly front line employees in the field and customer operation groups.

These employees provide essential communications services to residential and business communities, including hospitals, first responder and government facilities. Additionally, these same field and customer operations hourly workers will receive another permanent $1.50 per hour raise on top of their March 2021 merit increase.

Massive PPE Donation

Raytheon Technologies — the recently merged company consisting of Raytheon Company and United Technologies — is donating more than $3 million worth of charter transportation and personal protective equipment (PPE) to the State of Connecticut’s relief supplies, which will be distributed by the state to first responders and front line health care professionals.

Raytheon Technologies Corporation is an aerospace and defense company that provides advanced systems and services for commercial, military and government customers worldwide.

The donation includes 455,000 KN95 medical masks, 325,000 surgical masks, 120,000 protective coveralls, and 4,500 ICU coveralls. The gear is being purchased from suppliers in China and shipped to the Connecticut Division of Emergency Management and Homeland Security commodities warehouse, where it will be sorted and delivered to those in need through a joint operation with the Connecticut National Guard.

The Raytheon Technologies team on the ground in China coordinated the logistics of the acquisition and air travel to the United States.

ICYMI - Apply To Get Masks

In case you missed it earlier this week, the state is partnering with the Connecticut Business and Industry Association (CBIA) and its affiliate CONNSTEP to distribute free face coverings to eligible, essential small businesses with fewer than 50 employees. Locally the distribution effort is being coordinated by Newtown’s Emergency Management staff.

Eligible businesses include those defined as essential businesses by the Department of Economic and Community Development.

Eligible essential small businesses can request two free face coverings per employee at www.ctcovidresponse.org/request-masks-for-ct-small-business.

Newtown Emergency Management will then contact businesses with a date, time, and location to receive the requested masks. Masks will be distributed next week and continue while supplies last.