1. Assess the severity of the legal risk for each complaint. Include a summary of the plaintiff's case and potential defenses against each claim.
   • Address the severity of potential legal liability.
   • Summarize the plaintiff's potential case.
   • Describe any defenses CapraTek might be able to assert to avoid liability.
   • Identify any unanswered questions and additional individuals to be interviewed, providing your rationale indicating why they should be interviewed
   • References (see below)

Background

CapraTek is a 45-year-old company that specializes in the design and manufacture of computer server components. Today, an outside investigator, Louise Jones, an attorney for an investigative firm, is conducting interviews of key CapraTek executives in order to gather facts, reach conclusions, and advise CapraTek relative to its potential legal liability for 6 employee deaths. The employees' personal representatives are bringing "wrongful death" claims against CapraTek for the loss of their loved ones, as follows:

Deceased Individual	Plant	Job Description of Employee/Worker	Personal Representative or Attorney	Details of Claim, if Known	Additional Comments, if Any
Bhashar Quan, age 60, employee, hired 2020	AL	Manufacturing Associate (Labor)	Keena Quan, Daughter, New York, NY	Demand letter seeking >$2M	COVID-related death claim. Liability possible regarding COVID. Liability unlikely based on designation as "essential" because performed labor onsite.
Michael Haskill, age 49, employee, hired 2020	AL	Distribution Center- PM Stock Associate	Jefferson Haskill, Son and Derrick Simon, Attorney	Demand letter seeking $1.9M	Not COVID-related. Machinery accident. This injury is covered by Workers' Compensation insurance.
Susan Harewood, age 25 non-employee	GA	UPS employee, Delivery Driver on CapraTek premises (no date given)	Marshall and Sandra Harewood, parents, and Emerson Carter, Attorney	Demand letter seeking $6M	COVID related, died 9/15/2020. Claims to have had contact with infected employee Samantha Lopez at the Georgia distribution center. Upon learning of his daughter's death, Marshall Harewood suffered a disabling, massive stroke. This incident not covered by Workers' Comp because decedent was not a CapraTek employee.
James Clarke, Sr. age 42, employee, hired 2020, married	GA	Customer Service Representative	Leah Clarke, surviving spouse and Winsome Meyers, Attorney	Demand letter seeking $2.575M	Claim states that "local officials" recommended plant shutdown, but CapraTek refused to close the plant. This allegation must be investigated.
Richard Howell, age 24, employee, hired 2010, unmarried	IL	Manufacturing Center- Labor	Evander Seals, attorney representing the "family."	Demand for insurance and COVID-19 written policies information	COVID-related death on 9/15/2020. Again, this worker would be deemed essential under any standard.
Boris Senty, age 34, employee, hired 2017, married	IL	Logistics Engineer	George Morgan, Attorney representing unidentified clients.	Demand letter seeks $2.5M	COVID-related death on 9/10/2020. This worker may be deemed essential, but, as an engineer, it may also be possible he could have worked at home?

Interviews of the following key employees of CapraTek

• Nathaniel Matthews, Chief Operations Officer, Chicago Headquarters
• Marcus Norris, Director of Operations, Illinois Plant
• Renee Martin, Director of Human Resources, Georgia Plant
• Anthony Tsu, Director of Human Resources, Alabama Plant
• Matt Hayes, Director of Staffing, Alabama Plant

Interview of Nathaniel Matthews, Chief Operations Officer

Louise Jones: Mr. Matthews, thank you for attending this interview today. I wanted to take a minute first to advise you of some preliminary matters before we begin your interview.

Nathaniel Matthews: Okay

Louise Jones: First, I want to tell you that I am recording this interview, and that this interview is confidential. The company is asking you as a condition of your employment not to disclose any details about this investigation with anyone unless authorized by CapraTek's General Counsel, Marjorie Schmidt. Do you agree to this, Mr. Matthews?

Nathaniel Matthews: Sure, of course I do.

Louise Jones: Next, I want to ensure you are aware that I am acting as an attorney on behalf of CapraTek in this matter, and the purpose of the interview is for me to gather facts surrounding the deaths of six (6) people at various manufacturing plants in Alabama, Georgia, and Illinois. I am giving legal advice to CapraTek on how to handle these complaints. My firm, Jones Investigations, is a Chicago law firm that focuses solely on conducting workplace investigations and advising employers on how to defend lawsuits. I will be interviewing various CapraTek employees, including you. It's very important that you know I do not represent you individually, even though you are the Chief Operating Officer of CapraTek. Correct?

Nathaniel Matthews: Yes, Marjorie told me you would be explaining this to me.

Louise Jones: My firm has been hired by CapraTek, through your General Counsel, Marjorie Schmidt, to conduct independent investigations surrounding the deaths of these six (6) individuals in 2020.

Nathaniel Matthews: Okay, I understand that you don't represent me.

Louise Jones: So, Mr. Matthews, as far as we know, these 6 letters from the personal representatives of these deceased individuals are the only notice we have received regarding these claims. Have you personally received notice of any claims against yourself?

Nathaniel Matthews: No

Louise Jones: Has anyone suggested to you that you could have any responsibility for these deaths?

Nathaniel Matthews: No. But I'm starting to feel like you might be about to do that.

Louise Jones: Mr. Matthews, I hope you understand that my job is to gather facts and advise my client, and I am not in the habit of drawing conclusions until I have all the evidence.

Nathaniel Matthews: Of course, I was only half joking.

Louise Jones: Okay, have you read the 6 complaint letters?

Nathaniel Matthews: Yes, I have read them.

Louise Jones: I'm sure you've noticed, then, that a recurring theme in these letters is the allegation that COVID-19 precautions were not in place. The letters state that personal protective equipmentPPEwas not given to employees and social distancing was not enforced.

Nathaniel Matthews: That is actually not accurate at all. In the very beginning, like in February of 2020, we had not yet implemented precautions because there was no guidance. The CDC was initially saying not to wear masks. They even said masks would make the problem worse. It wasn't until about early to mid-March that Governor Pritzker issued his stay-at-home order and the Illinois plant was affected.

Louise Jones: Did CapraTek close?

Nathaniel Matthews: No, we were deemed essential. Right here, it says in the Governor's order, "the provision of essential global, national, and local infrastructure for computing services, business infrastructure, communications, and web-based services." We manufacture computer server components. If we shut down, the world shuts down, or at least the Internet, and, today, the world relies on the Internet for just about everything.

Louise Jones: Did your offices, at headquarters in Chicago, shut down?

Nathaniel Matthews: No, of course not. We are essential. We continued to do our jobs.

Louise Jones: At home or in headquarters?

Nathaniel Matthews: Mostly at home. Our offices were essentially abandoned, and we let our workers work from home. We conducted work nearly 20 hours a day preparing the company for the shift to work-at-home. We did business by Zoom. Our workers could come into the building if needed, but it was rare to see anyone in our suite. Working from home worked, and still is working.

Louise Jones: What was your involvement in determining which workers were essential to work in the 3 plants and which workers could work from home?

Nathaniel Matthews: We held a Zoom meeting. I met with the Directors of all three plants.

Louise Jones: When did this happen?

Nathaniel Matthews: I would say the beginning of April.

Louise Jones: Why so late?

Nathaniel Matthews: Well, all of our workers were healthy. We had no cases in March or April. Our facilities are clean and very well run. They always have been. Our workers wear protective masks and safety glasses in the plants already. Masks aren't something new to our manufacturing workers. They wear them already as part of the safety protocol. Not necessarily for COVID-19, but to protect their faces from debris. Our manufacturing workers come into contact with potentially toxic materials in the manufacturing process. They are well protected. We had no cases until after April and much later.

Louise Jones: Okay, tell me about the Zoom meeting you held with the Directors.

Nathaniel Matthews: I met with Marcus Norris. He's the Director of Operations for all of the plants. His office is in the Illinois plant. I met with the HR Directors of all three plants. Margaret Leone, she's the HR Manager of the Illinois plant. The HR Director position there is still not filled. Renae Martin, she's the HR Director of our Georgia operation. And Anthony Tsu, he's the HR Director in Alabama. They are all very much on top of things.

Louise Jones: Was this one meeting or did you meet with these individuals more than once?

Nathaniel Matthews: I believe we had several meetings, but this first meeting in April was the one where we planned our COVID-19 response to follow the CDC and OSHA guidelines for masks, hand sanitizer, and social distancing for our workers.

Louise Jones: Did you develop written policies about COVID-19 precautions in the workplace?

Nathaniel Matthews: Yes, I thought it best for each plant to develop its own set of guidelines. These are very large plants. They are not all the same. Each has its own unique building structure and set-up. The Illinois plant is an older building. The other two are newer buildings. Their policies would differ, so I felt it was best for each plant to develop its own policies.

Louise Jones: How do the plants differ?

Nathaniel Matthews: Well, for example, the Illinois plant is all on one floor, and a basement. There are only a few freight elevators; whereas, in Alabama and Georgia, there are 5 floors to each building with lots of passenger elevators.

Louise Jones: Okay, so do you have a copy of each plant's written policies?

Nathaniel Matthews: No, but I can get that for you.

Louise Jones: Have you read them?

Nathaniel Matthews: Yes, I have.

Louise Jones: Can you tell me what they say about protective gear, social distancing, and what precautions are outlined for the plants?

Nathaniel Matthews: Yes, they put into place all of the precautions that are commonly in place now. Plexiglass between workers who have to talk to people in person, face coverings, hand sanitizer at each employee's workspace, painted directions on the floors that show what 6 feet distancing looks like. Posters reminding everyone to keep 6 feet of distance from others. We re-routed the walkways where people have to navigate through the plant.

Louise Jones: How long did that take?

Nathaniel Matthews: It took a long time. They worked quickly, but I'm sure it took quite a while because these are large buildings. Oh, and one more thing. This was and still is a very big deal. We significantly improved our cleaning standards. The janitorial schedules were practically doubled. I believe we had to hire new maintenance workers to keep up with the new cleaning schedule. Every night after the day shift workers went home, the entire building was cleaned and disinfected. All surfaces were wiped clean. Floors were mopped every night. They used antibacterial sanitizer to get the place germ-free. I heard there were a lot of complaints from the janitorial staff about being overworked.

Louise Jones: Did you conduct any trainings or provide learning resources for employees about COVID-19, its seriousness, and how to avoid contracting the illness?

Nathaniel Matthews: No, we did not get that far. I am not aware of any trainings or efforts to educate employees on the virus, although I think most people know about it by now, thanks to the media. We did put posters on the walls and cubicles with information about COVID-19.

Louise Jones: Okay, I'd like to move on to another topic now. What do you know about the policies or procedures used to determine who got to work from home and who was required to work onsite after the stay-at-home orders were initiated?

Nathaniel Matthews: I don't know a lot about that. I do know that many workers were given the option to work from home. In fact, I believe most of our workers who can do their job from home, are working at home now. However, you must realize these are manufacturing plants. You can't manufacture computer parts from home. So, I am sure my HR Directors handled this methodically and carefully, but I have not seen their actual written policies or discussed with them how they determined who was essential to work onsite in the plants, in person, and who could work from home. As far as I know, and what I have learned, is that workers are deemed essential onsite if their job involves meeting with people they must see in person (such as emergency room physicians, or an eye doctor or dentist) and, of course, workers who work with supplies and materials. They, obviously, have to work onsite. Drivers who have to transport goods and supplies. We have quite a number of drivers. Engineers who use and share mechanical equipment and specialized computers we have onsite typically prefer to be onsite to do their jobs.

Louise Jones: Do you have any emergency room physicians or eye doctors in your plants?

Nathaniel Matthews: No, I was just using that as an example to illustrate to you the vast differences between workers who can perform their job at home, and those who need to be onsite.

Louise Jones: Okay, Mr. Matthews. One last question. Did you have any knowledge of government officials in Georgia demanding the shutdown of the Georgia plant?

Nathaniel Matthews: No, I did hear that rumor, and I investigated it. I Googled it and found no such report. I talked to my Operations people. They never received such a demand.

Louise Jones: I appreciate your attendance at this interview. I may need to interview you again. Please remember the confidentiality of this interview. In addition, I'd like to take this opportunity on behalf of the company to give you some legal advice as the COO of the company. It sounds like the measures you took to protect onsite workers from being infected with COVID-19 were not fully compliant with OSHA guidelines. OSHA recommends that employers assign a dedicated workplace coordinator to focus solely on mitigating exposure to the virus. It doesn't sound from your answers that this was done. All workers should receive training and direction on how to avoid the virus. Some of the workers in manufacturing may not speak English. We don't know if they all can read. It's important that all of the workers deemed essential to work onsite received in-person training about COVID-19. Any high-risk elderly workers or those with pre-existing conditions should be given information on the risks. OSHA recommends a hazard assessment that identifies particular hazards unique to your facilities for onsite workers. In addition to these precautions, I will be informing the CEO of additional steps to be taken after we have done a thorough analysis.

Nathaniel Matthews: I understand. Thank you.

Interview of Marcus Norris, Director of Operations at Illinois plant.

Louise Jones: Mr. Norris, thank you for attending this interview today. I wanted to take a minute first to advise you of some preliminary matters before we begin your interview.

Marcus Norris: Okay

Louise Jones: First, I want to tell you that I am recording this interview, and that this interview is confidential. The company is asking you not to disclose any details about this investigation with anyone unless authorized by CapraTek's General Counsel, Marjorie Schmidt. Do you agree to this, Mr. Norris?

Marcus Norris: Yes, I do.

Louise Jones: Next, I want to ensure that you are aware that I am acting as an attorney on behalf of CapraTek, and the purpose of the interview is for me to gather facts surrounding the deaths of six (6) people at various manufacturing plants in Alabama, Georgia, and Illinois. I am giving legal advice to CapraTek on how to handle these complaints. My firm, Jones Investigations, is a Chicago law firm that focuses solely on conducting workplace investigations and advising employers on how to defend lawsuits. I will be interviewing various key CapraTek employees, including you. It's very important that you know I do not represent you individually, even though you are the Director of Operations at the Illinois plant, as, as I was told, you are the Director of Operations at all 3 plants, Illinois, Alabama, and Georgia, correct?

Marcus Norris: Yes, that is correct, under Mr. Matthews.

Louise Jones: My firm has been hired by CapraTek, through its General Counsel, Marjorie Schmidt, to conduct independent investigations surrounding the deaths of six (6) individuals in 2020 across these 3 plants. Are you aware of these complaints?

Marcus Norris: Yes, I am.

Louise Jones: Mr. Norris, I must ask you how you are able to manage operations at all 3 plants?

Marcus Norris: I travel to the other plants often, about once a month at least. I inspect the plants, so to speak. I talk to the employees. I talk to my managers. I am quite familiar with operations at all 3 of the plants.

Louise Jones: Did you attend a meeting with Nathaniel Matthews, Chief Operating Officer of CapraTek, in April, on Zoom?

Marcus Norris: Yes, I did.

Louise Jones: What was the purpose of that meeting?

Marcus Norris: Oh, COVID-19 had just hit. Nathaniel wanted to get us all on the same page with how we would comply with stay-at-home orders. How we would keep our employees safe.

Louise Jones: Were you given directions on how to do this?

Marcus Norris: Yes, we instituted a lot of changes. We made it a safer environment. We told employees they had to keep a safe 6 feet of distance from others, they had to wear face coverings, had to wash their hands, use hand sanitizer and wipes, and generally to keep safe and avoid close contact. I think we did well for a while, but then, during the peak of the outbreak, late April and May, we did have cases.

Louise Jones: Did you have a protocol for how to handle the cases?

Marcus Norris: Yes, we placed a worker outside of each plant to take temperatures of anyone entering the building. If someone had a fever, they were sent home and asked to get a COVID-19 test. They could return to work if the test was negative and they did not have symptoms. There were some employees who showed symptoms at work, and they were asked to go home and return to work when they had a negative test result. We ended up having about 70% of our workers contract COVID-19, which is a high amount, and 6 people died. The virus was just very contagious, and even with the precautions we put in place, it got away from us. We lost control of the situation.

Louise Jones: Is the situation under control now?

Marcus Norris: Yes, I believe on the advice of our general counsel, we ended up changing the status of some of our onsite workers to work-from-home instead of essential, and that has made a difference.

Louise Jones: Are you telling me there were workers onsite who could work from home?

Marcus Norris: Yes, that is my understanding.

Louise Jones: Can you tell me why anyone whose job could be done from home was still made to come into the plant?

Marcus Norris: My understanding is that there was a mix-up. I really don't know enough about it, but if you talk to Anthony Tsu, he's the HR Director of the Alabama plant, he can explain it better than I can. Apparently, there were a lot of new workers hired right before the outbreak of COVID-19. These new workers were hired around the end of 2019 until about January or February of 2020. It was part of an effort the company was making called a Diversity and Inclusion Initiative. I think in 2019, the company did an evaluation of its equal employment hiring and promotion practices and found out that only a small percentage of our workers were diverse. We had mostly young males. Females held mostly traditional female positions. We were not seeking workers of various races, such as Black, Hispanic, or Asian. We didn't have diverse sexual orientations or anyone who was transexual. We had very few workers over the age of 50. So... the long and short of it is the company sunk a lot of money into trying to change this. They hired some consulting firm to help, and paid them a bundle of money to recruit minorities. The plan was to create new positions to try to get to 15% minority hires. But then COVID-19 hit and that plan was suspended. I do believe they hired a number of new workers under that plan, though, perhaps 20 or 30.

Louise Jones: Can you tell me who was in charge of this initiative?

Marcus Jones: Yes, it was Anthony Hsu, HR Director of Alabama and Renae Martin, HR Director in Georgia.

Louise Jones: So, what does all this have to do with the workers not working from home?

Marcus Jones: Okay, so as odd as this is going to sound, here is what I have been told by Anthony and Renae. Since they hired all these new employees, they decided to do it right this time and write detailed job descriptions for the new employees. We had never been that efficient before, and all of our employees worked with loosely defined job descriptions that were not in writing most of the time. It worked okay, to tell you the truth. So, now they are getting written job descriptions. This outfit the company paid all this money to suggested this. Apparently, all these workers had a job description that included something that said, they HAD to be able to work in a cubicle. Just a second, I have it here in my phone. It says [reading], "the following are listed as essential duties, (a) the ability to be a team player, (b), the ability to work in an office- and cubicle-based environment; (c) the ability to lift 25 pounds, and (c), the ability to take directions and be flexible."

Louise Jones: Okay, so those are the essential duties, but how does that relate to their ability to work from home?

Marcus Norris: That's where Matt Hayes comes in. Anthony and Renae delegated the job of figuring out which employees were essential and which were not to Matt Hayes, a Director of Staffing. He's at the Alabama plant, but he's like me. He travels around and generally helps out at the other plants too.

Louise Jones: So how did Matt Hayes determine who could work from home and who could not?

Marcus Norris: Matt apparently figured that he had to go by the job descriptions, and any employee hired in late 2019 until COVID-19 hit had a job description that said an essential duty was the ability to work in a cubicle. Matt decided that meant they were essential to work onsite.

Louise Jones: Does this make sense to you?

Marcus Norris: No, in retrospect, it does not. But I can see how it could happen. Before COVID-19, most of us hadn't even heard of the term essential worker. I think Matt thought he had come up with a foolproof way of determining who was essential. Heck, the job description even said, "essential" duties, so Matt just went with it.

Louise Jones: Do you know if Anthony and Renae knew he was doing this?

Marcus Norris: I'm not sure.

Louise Jones: What do you mean, you are not sure? To your knowledge, did they know about this?

Marcus Norris: Well, I think so. I asked Matt about it after the fact, and he said that they knew. He told them. They said, well, you've already started it this way. Just keep doing it.

Louise Jones: What do you mean by after the fact you found out about it?

Marcus Norris: When the complaint letters started rolling in after a lot of people got sick and some died, it came to light that some of these workers could have worked from home, like Jesinta Andrews. She was a pregnant worker. She didn't get COVID-19, and she's fine, but people were shocked to know that she was not offered to work from home. Our General Counsel stepped in and changed things around. Matt is still with the company, but he is no longer in charge of staffing employees. I think he is going to be put somewhere else.

Louise Jones: Okay, Mr. Morris, I appreciate your attendance at this interview. It's possible I may need to interview you again. I will need you to come back for any follow-up questions. Again, I want to remind you of the confidentiality of this interview.

Marcus Norris: No problem, my pleasure.

Interview of Renee Martin, HR Director, Georgia plant

Louise Jones: Ms. Martin, thank you for attending this interview today. I wanted to take a minute first to advise you of some preliminary matters before we begin your interview.

Renae Martin: Okay

Louise Jones: First, I want to tell you that I am recording this interview, and that this interview is confidential. The company is asking you not to disclose any details about this investigation with anyone unless authorized by CapraTek's General Counsel, Marjorie Schmidt. Do you agree to this, Ms. Martin?

Renae Martin: Yes, I do.

Louise Jones: Next, I want to ensure that you are aware that I am acting as an attorney on behalf of CapraTek in this matter, and the purpose of the interview is for me to gather facts surrounding the deaths of six (6) people at various manufacturing plants in Alabama, Georgia, and Illinois. I am giving legal advice to CapraTek on how to handle these complaints. My firm, Jones Investigations, is a Chicago law firm that focuses solely on conducting workplace investigations and advising employers on how to defend lawsuits. I will be interviewing various key CapraTek employees, including you. It's very important that you know I do not represent you individually, even though you are the Director of Human Resources at the Georgia plant, correct?

Renae Martin: Yes, that is correct.

Louise Jones: My firm has been hired by CapraTek, through its General Counsel, Marjorie Schmidt, to conduct independent investigations surrounding the deaths of six (6) individuals in 2020 across these 3 plants. Are you aware of these complaints?

Renae Martin: Yes, I am.

Louise Jones: I want to focus on two things in my interview with you today. I want you to tell me what you know about COVID-19 precautions taken by the company after February 2020 and about how workers were deemed essential for onsite work. I want to know how you selected workers to work at home and who was deemed essential to come into work every day.

Renae Martin: Okay.

Louise Jones: I understand an engineer by the name of Jesinta Andrews was pregnant with some kind of condition to her pregnancy and was made to work onsite at the Alabama plant. What do you know about that?

Renae Martin: She was. She was an engineer. Some of our engineers are essential workers because they use the equipment onsite and they work in teams. Most of our engineers want to work onsite. They say they can't work from home because they work so closely with each other. Plus the equipment and computers they work with can't go home with them.

Louise Jones: Okay, fortunately, as I understand, Ms. Andrews delivered her baby, everything was fine, and she did not contract COVID-19. I also understand that the General Counsel got involved and assigned her to work from home prior to her maternity leave.

Renae Martin: Yes, and I agreed with that decision as well. Sometimes, for engineers, we leave it up to the employee.

Louise Jones: Are you familiar with Matt Hayes, Director of Staffing?

Renae Martin: Yes, he works with Anthony too in the Alabama plant.

Louise Jones: Did you ever meet with him?

Renae Martin: Yes, we met when he came to the Georgia plant to look around the workspaces and assign staff as essential for onsite work. He came several times, so we met off and on during March and April.

Louise Jones: Did he tell you how he was determining which workers would continue onsite?

Renae Martin: He did not. He works under Anthony, and I trust Anthony's professional judgment and knowledge. I did not want to interfere with his work or with Anthony's direction of his work.

Louise Jones: Okay, I want to move on to the COVID-19 precautions taken at your plant. Were you in charge of these efforts?

Renae Martin: Yes, I met with Nathaniel Matthews, our COO, and he gave us all the go-ahead to review the OSHA standards for creating a safe and clean environment for our workers. We made huge efforts to clean up the workspace and enforce face coverings, social distancing, etc. It really was an epic change for us. The workers complained, and they weren't always compliant, but we did our best.

Louise Jones: Did you see workers breaking the social distancing or mask wearing rules?

Renae Martin: No, I did not personally see any of that, but Matt told me that employees were complaining to him that they could not work with masks on and kept forgetting to keep 6 feet apart from others. I think there's a learning curve, and I told Matt they are doing the best they can.

Louise Jones: Have you seen the complaint letters sent to the company by workers who got sick or died?

Renae Martin: Yes, it's part of my job to review every complaint letter. Many of them were written directly to me as the HR Director. But I have seen all 30 letters because that's what we do here at CapraTek. When there is any complaint letter, as officers of the company. The HR Directors are notified. We want to learn from these complaints so that we can do better and try to avoid future complaints.

Louise Jones: Are you aware of 2 wrongful death letters sent to you for deaths that occurred in your plant?

Renae Martin: Yes, I am.

Louise Jones: Okay, let's look at them. There's James Clarke, Sr., a Customer Service Representative. He was age 42. Have you talked to his family? Or his attorney, Mr. Meyers?

Renae Martin: No, I do not talk to anyone that files a complaint.

Louise Jones: Have they tried to contact you again?

Renae Martin: They may have, but I field any communications to the General Counsel's office.

Louise Jones: Do you know if Mr. Clarke contracted COVID-19 at work?

Renae Martin: No, I do not know for sure, but I think it is likely. He died in September. In August, there were a lot of employees getting sick with the virus. We sent them home. We made anyone who was in contact quarantine. We did everything we could, but to no avail.

Louise Jones: Do you know if he worked in close contact with another worker or workers who were sick with COVID-19?

Renae Martin: There were so many sick workers during that time, it's nearly impossible to say he was not in contact with them. He was in customer service. They work in phone banks. They are in close contact with each other. They sometimes share phones. We sanitized them, but like I said, the workers were not always careful.

Louise Jones: Could these workers have worked from home?

Renae Martin: In retrospect, perhaps they could. But I think their job is so much easier when they work onsite. They often have to escalate calls to a supervisor. They do a lot of consulting with each other. Could they work the phones remotely? Probably, but I doubt if they would want to work that way. It would be much harder.

Louise Jones: Okay, let's move on to ...

Renae Martin [interrupting]: I'm sorry but all of this is supposed to be covered by Worker's Compensation anyway. I don't know why everyone is making such a big deal about.... Sorry.

Louise Jones: Ms. Martin, as you may know, the law is in flux about that. The latest information we have is that Georgia is not a state that has passed a law declaring that COVID-19 will be covered by Workers' Compensation. That leaves the company open to potential liability.

Renae Martin: Yes, but I heard that they are going to have to. I heard that these insurance companies are going to all have to cover it as a workplace illness, no matter what state you are in.

Louise Jones: Well, if that happens, I'm sure the company would be quite relieved. As counsel for CapraTek in this investigation, I want you to know that Workers' Compensation, even if it were to cover employee illnesses and deaths from COVID, does not protect the company from the death of a non-employee who contracts the virus onsite. Are you familiar with the case of Susan Harewood, a 25-year-old UPS driver whose parents say she contracted the virus while delivering supplies to your site?

Renae Martin: What? Workers' Compensation doesn't cover that? Why not? She is a worker. She was doing her job when she made those deliveries. This was not a social visit. Her company'sUPS'sworkers' comp insurance will cover her! I feel certain of that. You can't sue CapraTek when you get sick on your job, right?

Louise Jones: Ms. Martin, I'm afraid you may not be familiar with the law. When workers are injured or die on the job, they cannot sue their employers for negligence. That's the way workers' compensation works. For the most part, accidental work injuries and casualties are not the subject of lawsuits against employers. But, perhaps, you did not know that a worker hurt or injured on the job can almost always sue for negligence by someone other than their employer for the injury. CapraTek was not Susan Harewood's employer. She can sue CapraTek for negligence that may have resulted in her death.

Renae Martin: Oh, I didn't know that.

Louise Jones: Do you know anything about her or how she contracted the disease?

Renae Martin: I know they are saying she may have gotten it from Samantha Lopez, who signed for the delivery, but Samantha did not have symptoms that day. I think it will be very hard for them to prove that Samantha gave her COVID-19.

Louise Jones: Okay, obviously, any information you are able to find about that case will be of great help to the company. If you are aware of anything people are saying from the grapevine or outside of the company about contact she had with others who had the virus, please bring it to my attention immediately.

Renae Martin: Oh, I will for sure. I'll keep a close ear out for any information I can find.

Louise Jones: Thank you, and may I remind you of the confidentiality of this interview. It is very important that you not share anything we talked about here today.

Renae Martin: Yes, I agree.

Interview of Anthony Tsu, HR Director, Alabama Plant

Louise Jones: Mr. Tsu, thank you for attending this interview today. I wanted to take a minute first to advise you of some preliminary matters before we begin your interview.

Anthony Tsu: Okay

Louise Jones: First, I want to tell you that I am recording this interview, and that this interview is confidential. The company is asking you, as a condition of your employment, not to disclose any details about this investigation with anyone unless authorized by CapraTek's General Counsel, Marjorie Schmidt. Do you agree to this, Mr.Tsu?

Anthony Tsu: Yes, I do.

Louise Jones: Next, I want to ensure that you are aware that I am acting as an attorney on behalf of CapraTek in this matter, and the purpose of the interview is for me to gather facts surrounding the deaths of six (6) people at various manufacturing plants in Alabama, Georgia, and Illinois. I am giving legal advice to CapraTek on how to handle these complaints. My firm, Jones Investigations, is a Chicago law firm that focuses solely on conducting workplace investigations and advising employers on how to defend lawsuits. I will be interviewing various key CapraTek employees, including you. It's very important that you know I do not represent you individually, even though you are the Director of Human Resources at the Alabama plant, correct?

Anthony Tsu: Yes, that is correct.

Louise Jones: My firm has been hired by CapraTek, through its General Counsel, Marjorie Schmidt, to conduct independent investigations surrounding the deaths of six (6) individuals in 2020 across these 3 plants. Are you aware of these complaints?

Anthony Tsu: Yes, I am.

Louise Jones: I want to focus on two things in my interview with you today. I want you to tell me what you know about COVID-19 precautions taken by the company after February 2020 and about how workers were deemed essential for onsite work. I want to know how you selected workers to work at home.

Anthony Tsu: Certainly.

Louise Jones: Mr. Tsu, as you know, we lost 2 of your employees at the Alabama plant, Bhashar Quan and Michael Haskill. I need you to tell me anything you know about these deaths. Do you know anything beyond what we learned from their complaint letters sent by their attorneys?

Anthony Tsu: I don't think I know anything about them. Bhashar Quan kept to himself. He worked in manufacturing. He was a good worker and grateful for his job. He had been unemployed for several years before we hired him, but I don't know why. Michael Haskill worked in the distribution center. He was a strong, healthy man who worked harder than anyone, a real physical specimen. I was so sad to hear he had succumbed to the disease.

Louise Jones: Would you have classified these workers as essential for onsite work?

Anthony Tsu: Yes, beyond a doubt. Both were, essentially, laborers. There isn't any possibility for them to have performed their jobs from home.

Louise Jones: What about other workers who got sick in your plant? Do you believe they were all classified correctly as either work from home or onsite?

Anthony Tsu: I think, for the most part, yes. There may be some who fell through the cracks. As far as we know, anyone who fell ill or died in the state of Illinois will be covered by workers' compensation. We heard that 17 or so states have passed laws requiring workers' compensation claims for COVID-19 to be covered. Now, I know Georgia and Alabama have not yet done so, so there's that uncertainty for us.

Louise Jones: I want to focus on those you feel may have fallen through the cracks. What happened there?

Anthony Tsu: Oh, the job of designating anyone to work onsite was handed by me to our Director of Staffing Matt Hayes. I wanted to outsource this job. I really felt it would be best to let the experts do it, but Nathaniel Matthews, my boss, wouldn't let us do it. It was expensive, and the company had just made some major expenditures to invest in a diversity hiring effort. That job was outsourced to a fancy high-priced company. Then, I believe, but I can't say for sure, but I believe the company went into debt to hire the additional diverse employees. Created some new jobs for them. I think the company may have borrowed money to pay their salaries. Nate would know. I don't know for sure, but he told me that money was scarce, and I had to find someone to do the job of designating essential workers for onsite, so I used Matt to do the job.

Louise Jones: Are you familiar with the job Matt did?

Anthony Tsu: Yes, he reported to me. He told me how he was using job descriptions that placed most of the newer employees onsite permanently. I went along with it, but later our General Counsel found out, and intervened. Some of those employees were allowed to work at home. But as far as these two wrongful deaths in my plant, I can assure you that both were essential onsite.

Louise Jones: Okay, Mr. Tsu, that is all for now. I may want to interview you again. Obviously, any information you are able to find about any of these cases will be of great help to the company. If you are aware of anything people are saying from the grapevine or outside of the company about the employees who became ill or died, please bring it to my attention immediately.

Anthony Tsu: Oh, I will.

Louise Jones: Thank you, and may I remind you of the confidentiality of this interview. It is very important that you not share anything we talked about here today with anyone.

Anthony Tsu: I agree.

Interview with Matt Hayes, Staffing Director

Louise Jones: Matt, thank you for coming in. Before we start, I want to take care of some preliminary matters. I am an attorney, and I represent CapraTek. My firm does investigations of workplace incidents. It's important that you know I do not represent you personally. If any action were taken against you personally, I do not and could not represent you. There could be a conflict of interest between you and CapraTek. Also, I want to tell you that the company intends for this interview to be kept confidential. This is a condition of your continued employment with CapraTek. Do you agree to this and to all of these terms?

Matt Hayes: Yes

Louise Jones: Okay, let's get started. I want to ask you about the 30 complaint letters the company has received. Have you seen these letters?

Hayes: Yes, my boss Anthony Tsu showed them to me in his office. We met about these complaints. He thought some of these problems could have been caused by me designating workers as essential to work onsite when they could have done their work from home.

Louise Jones: What was your reaction to him saying that?

Hayes: I was worried. I felt terrible, especially if people died. I made the decisions based on job descriptions. I told him I was doing that. He never told me not to. He thought it was a great way to do it. He said, that way, we could just point to the job descriptions and no one could accuse us of discrimination or preferential treatment.

Louise Jones: Do you still believe that?

Hayes: More and more...no. It haunts me that my decision is now being questioned. Having it questioned is making me question it. Now, I am thinking that maybe the job description was not the way to go. Maybe the requirement that the new employees be able to work in a cubicle was just assuming they would work onsite, and not thinking that someday we would have to deal with COVID-19. Maybe we should have looked at factors that were more relevant, like if the employee could do the job at home, or if they HAD to be onsite.

Louise Jones: Okay, Matt, I appreciate your honesty. Hindsight is 20/20, especially in this case. Can you think of anything else Mr. Tsu said to you about this decision?

Hayes: No, only that he wished he had hired an outsourcing firm we tried to use, but the company wouldn't spend the money.

Louise Jones: Anything else? Were you disciplined by anyone? Did anyone else talk to you about this problem?

Hayes: Well, no, it's still sort of a secret. I don't think they want it getting out. I am not going to lose my job. Mr. Tsu is going to be reassigning me to a different job, though. I haven't been told yet where I'll be going.

Louise Jones: Okay Matt, I appreciate your attendance at this interview today. It's possible I may need to interview you again. Please remember what I said about confidentiality. Nothing we talked