March 20, 2020
To: GBCA Membership
From: Benjamin J. Connors, Esq., President & CEO
Subject: GBCA Coronavirus Update - Information Regarding Waivers
T
he GBCA received the following message from the state via the Mayor's Office. While the criteria are not yet clear, it is important that you each are aware of the current waiver process. Below is the current means to request a waiver from the deadline before “Enforcement Actions for Non-Compliance” begin. As this situation evolves and more information becomes available we will provide additional updates.
Yesterday, Governor Wolf ordered all non-life-sustaining businesses in Pennsylvania to close their physical locations as of 8 p.m., March 19, to slow the spread of COVID-19. Enforcement actions against businesses that do not close physical locations will begin at 12:01 a.m. Saturday, March 21 (midnight tonight, March 20).
Construction and associated activities were NOT designated as a life-sustaining business. Therefore, all construction sites must be shut down before enforcement begins tonight.
The guidance from the state below appears to be a waiver from the order for businesses actually performing life safety work.
However, a contractor that is not doing life safety work but believes that shutting down the construction site by midnight tonight will have a serious life safety impact, should request a waiver of the enforcement deadline. Demonstrate with a narrative why that is so and that you are making all good faith efforts to shut down the site properly and expeditiously.
State Guidance
Any business that would like to seek a waiver may email
Businesses may also contact the Administration with questions about whether they need to close by emailing
ra-dcedcs@pa.gov
.
Sample Language:
We are a fire suppression/sprinkler company that works throughout the Commonwealth and have numerous service employees that maintain the life-safety systems in numerous facilities. These systems are located with hospitals, commercial properties, apartment complexes, and high rises and protect the lives of Pennsylvanians. In response to the coronavirus situation, we discontinued our office operations in all states we operate within and instituted a work-from-home protocol effective 5:00 p.m. on Friday, March 13, 2020, before we were ordered to do so by any government authority.
Although we instituted this work-from-home protocol, we did have volunteer skeleton crew(s) continuing to work in most of our offices to answer emergency calls. These crews consisted of one or two employees who volunteered to carry out essential functions. These employees were instructed to maintain appropriate social distancing and other prophylactic measures – such as mandatory hand washing and surface cleaning. We have also asked our service crews to do the same as some are on-site around the clock to protect the public, for this reason, we are respectfully seeking a waiver for our core employees and personnel.
