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58 staffers at a Walmart fulfillment center in Fort Worth have tested positive for COVID-19, worker tells OSHA

The person filed a formal complaint Thursday, saying that there were five more presumed cases and that social distancing wasn't being enforced.

An employee at a Walmart fulfillment center in Fort Worth has filed a report with federal regulators saying that the facility has had 58 confirmed COVID-19 cases and that social distancing isn’t being properly enforced.

The complaint, filed Thursday with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, said managers had disclosed to employees that 58 co-workers had tested positive for COVID-19 and that five more were presumed positive.

The employee has worked at the facility, at 5300 Westport Parkway, since before the pandemic started but wanted to remain anonymous beyond that, according to United for Respect, a group formed to advocate for front-line retail store and fulfillment center workers.

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In the filing, the Walmart employee said the infected employees had been working in the packing and picking areas for inbound and outbound merchandise.

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“Social distancing has not been enforced at six feet. The number of positive cases continues to rise,” the employee said in the report.

Chauntra Rideaux, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Labor, which includes OSHA, said Friday that the agency was not “currently” investigating “any incidents at this location.”

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Since late April, OSHA has received 4,781 complaints from general warehouse facilities in the U.S. The daily number has increased steadily to 120 on Thursday, up from under 40 or 50 a day in April. In OSHA’s Region 6, which includes Texas, the agency has received 18,720 complaints across all types of facilities and industries. Of those, 1,054 prompted inspections.

Texas has set single-day records for coronavirus cases this week, and Gov. Greg Abbott has predicted that next week would “look worse.”

“While we are not going to comment on the specifics of any particular complaint, the controls and practices we have in place are consistent with CDC [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] and OSHA COVID-19 preparedness guidance,” said Robyn Babbitt, a Walmart spokeswoman.

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Texas is Walmart’s largest state, with 593 Walmart and Sam’s Club stores, 19 distribution and fulfillment centers and 162,000 employees.

Ten of the cases at the Fort Worth fulfillment center were reported over the Fourth of July holiday weekend, according to the Walmart employee.

The center has been open since 2013 and employed about 600 people when it was converted to an e-commerce fulfillment center in 2015. The 800,000-square-foot building now employs 4,000 in multiple shifts, reflecting the increase in online shopping.

The ZIP code where the fulfillment center is has had 74 cases, but cases are recorded by where people live, not where they work, according to the Tarrant County Public Health department.

The employee who filed the complaint spoke with The Dallas Morning News Friday. The worker still has a job at the center and would speak only anonymously for fear of reprisal. The person’s name was also redacted from the OSHA report.

The environment at the center reflects the increased volume of work since the pandemic started, the worker said, with consumer demand so high that staffing is at Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday levels.

That makes it harder to achieve social distancing, the employee said.

“We’re pushing so much volume, all the work stations are full,” the employee said. “I don’t think it’s possible to enforce social distancing with the amount of demand.”

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It takes five or six people to unload a truckload of merchandise, and they are too close to one another, the worker said. That’s also true in areas where employees are picking merchandise along aisles to assemble outgoing orders.

Walmart is doing some things right, the worker said: When there are new positive tests for the virus, employees are informed at the start of their shifts. The cumulative number of cases is updated and posted on a board outside the break room. Walmart has also hired a cleaning crew that is in the center 24/7 wiping down surfaces.

About a month ago, employees were told they could clock in as much as 20 minutes early and clock out early in order to stagger the number of people signing in so they could stand six feet apart, the worker said.

Workers are wearing masks and gloves but not in break rooms, the worker said. Walmart has installed temporary plastic screens that are like shower curtains between people, but employees often move them because they get in the way, the worker said.

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The building is one of two e-commerce fulfillment centers Walmart has opened in Fort Worth in the past few years. The other one, at 15101 N. Beach St., is bigger, at 1 million square feet.

Last month, Walmart closed its Neighborhood Market in the Casa View Shopping Center, at Gus Thomasson and Ferguson Roads in Far East Dallas, for almost two days for a deep cleaning. Some employees had tested positive for the coronavirus at the store during the new spike in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

United for Respect — which says it’s a multiracial movement rather than a labor union, though many of its members are in unions — is demanding higher pay and a voice on the job for front-line retail workers and fulfillment center employees nationwide. It’s seeking hazard pay at 1.5 times the workers’ regular compensation.

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The group started a COVID-19 tracker on April 29 that includes the Fort Worth fulfillment center. The point of the site is to inform co-workers and communities about store conditions and potential outbreaks, the group said. The site lists 805 reported cases and 22 deaths of Walmart employees from COVID-19 in the U.S.

“We heard from our members all across the country that Walmart was keeping them in the dark about potential and confirmed COVID-19 cases,” said the group’s chief technology officer, Cat Huang. “We had no confidence they would be transparent or proactive about the conditions at stores, so with our members, we created the tracker to safeguard the health of our families, our customers and our communities.”

The site’s posts are anonymous and are monitored by United for Respect to remove duplicate reports from multiple employees in the same facility. The site also includes information about Amazon and Sam’s Club facilities.

Walmart is “following the evolving guidance of public health experts, and we have quickly taken steps aimed at keeping our associates safe,” said Babbitt, the company spokeswoman. That includes making face coverings mandatory, making gloves and protective eyewear available to employees and deep cleaning of facilities. It also includes taking employees’ temperatures and performing health screenings while promoting social distancing.

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“While it may be impossible to track the source of anyone’s infection, what we are seeing is that the health of our associates tends to track the health of the country as a whole,” Babbitt said. “That’s why we are working in partnership with local health officials and are taking proactive steps to help ensure the safety of our associates and customers.”

From the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak, Walmart and other retailers that were deemed essential and stayed open during the shutdowns have added paid leave for workers who test positive.

Twitter: @MariaHalkias

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