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Delivery drivers face pandemic without sick pay, insurance, sanitizer

Delivery drivers face pandemic without sick pay, insurance, sanitizer

Matthew Bidwell of the Wharton School spoke about the pandemic-related changes to working conditions for contract employees. “It’s very sad because three weeks ago we were in a historically tight labor market,” he said. “It was forcing employers for the first time in a long time to offer more perks and more benefits. They no longer have that pressure.”

The GAO told the government in 2015 to develop a plan to protect the aviation system against an outbreak. It never happened

The GAO told the government in 2015 to develop a plan to protect the aviation system against an outbreak. It never happened

Howard Kunreuther of the Wharton School said good leadership is critical in preparing government agencies for catastrophic events. “You cannot deal with this at the level of just saying let each agency operate,” he said. “You need to have some way to bring them together and to indicate that this is a problem, which cannot be solved by one agency alone. That is something that leadership is going to have to suggest—‘This is the way to do it’—and we don’t have that right now.”

The risk coronavirus poses to our tenuous, complex supply chain
Colorful shipping containers piled high, with one being loaded by a truck.

The risk coronavirus poses to our tenuous, complex supply chain

A disruption to any single link, from factories overseas to the truck driver delivering goods the final mile, could have a ripple effect, according to researcher Steve Viscelli.

Michele W. Berger

As coronavirus spreads in the US, employers gear up for massive work-from-home experiment

As coronavirus spreads in the US, employers gear up for massive work-from-home experiment

Peter Cappelli of the Wharton School discussed how workplaces are preparing for the spread of the novel coronavirus. “We’re trying to figure out how to keep the business going when people can’t get to the office,” he said. “My sense is the first thing that will happen, and the most likely thing is that it's not that all your employees will be too sick to work, it's that they won't be in the office.”