In a statement to BuzzFeed Information, Hartman downplayed the seriousness of the virus and falsely asserted, in contradiction to credible health experts, that masks weren’t an efficient technique of stopping an infection. “Our discouragement of masks within the workplace is in assist of the understanding that masks are ineffective in controlling the virus,” he stated, “and that social distancing, hand washing, and cleansing and disinfecting surfaces are the best methods to regulate the virus right now.”
Nonetheless, Hartman claimed, “the corporate doesn’t prohibit individuals from sporting a masks,” regardless of staff saying they’ve confronted retaliation for attempting to take action.
This declare was made in a “clarification” of the company’s mask policy Hartman stated was being distributed to staff. The doc, which once more falsely asserted masks have been ineffective, cited the pro-Trump, conspiracy-fueled newspaper the Epoch Times and the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, an ultra-conservative fringe group that’s anti-vaccination and anti-LGBTQ. It additionally cited a May piece from the New England Journal of Drugs to argue that mask-wearing outdoors of healthcare amenities was ineffective. However the authors of that piece later wrote another for the same journal, complaining that individuals have been mischaracterizing their findings “as assist for discrediting widespread masking,” and that “in fact, the intent of our article was to push for extra masking, not much less.”
In his assertion to BuzzFeed Information, Hartman known as the non permanent closing down of companies, which was executed to sluggish the unfold of the virus, “a mistake of the elected officers responding to the left-wing media hysteria designed to discredit President Trump.”
Hartman, a frequent conservative donor, has not been afraid to espouse his right-wing and devoutly spiritual views within the office. In 2019, he took workers to a Houston Astros recreation after which handed out MAGA hats for them to put on there. After Chick-fil-A cut funding to charities accused of being anti-LGBTQ in November, he known as for his employees to protest towards the fast-food chain. In June, he forwarded to the entire firm an e mail from the right-wing group PragerU, which known as Black Lives Matter a “left-wing hate machine.” When an worker pushed again on the characterization, he known as her a Marxist.
On his LinkedIn, Hartman calls “working to glorify God within the office” one of many “core values” of his property administration firm. He’s vehemently anti-abortion, staff stated, and at a companywide assembly final yr confirmed photographs of aborted fetuses in a PowerPoint presentation. He has additionally introduced in audio system to speak about how “Democrats are killing infants,” an worker stated.
“I felt like I used to be at a rally I didn’t wish to be part of,” the third worker stated.
In keeping with a job description on their web site, the corporate has a “religion based mostly company tradition” and donates to “a number of non-profit organizations which can be working to implement Christian values into the market place and in laws.” Nonetheless, they declare to be an “equal alternative employer” that doesn’t discriminate on the idea of faith, race, or quite a lot of different identifiers.
However staff stated that’s not true in apply and that new hires are subjected to one-on-one telephone calls with Hartman throughout which he asks prying questions on their religion and the way usually they go to church.
“Anybody who’s not Christian doesn’t stick round very lengthy,” the third worker claimed.
Hartman denied discriminating on the idea of faith or every other protected class, citing the corporate’s employment policies. “Whereas it’s true we contemplate ourselves a Christian firm, we don’t take any motion (hostile or in any other case) towards any applicant or worker for his or her spiritual views,” he stated.
“We apologize if any particular person has felt uncomfortable of their place right here at Hartman,” he stated, whereas including that he had a proper to specific his political beliefs within the office.
Hartman has additionally been forwarding the corporate emails from Steven Hotze, a Texas doctor who has beforehand been criticized by colleagues for unscientific statements. Hotze appeared on Fox Information in mid-March, minimizing the seriousness of the approaching pandemic and telling viewers they need to “conduct your life normally.” In keeping with a 2005 profile of him within the Houston Press, Hotze has made a number of weird medical claims, together with that contraception drugs make ladies “much less engaging to males” and males who lose their testicles have problem with math and studying maps. He has repeatedly espoused violently anti-LGBTQ rhetoric, evaluating homosexual folks to Nazis and saying the “gay motion” was being run by “Satanic cults,” in response to the Texas Observer.
In a single Could e mail, which Hartman forwarded companywide, Hotze known as the pandemic a “mass hysteria” and inspired his supporters to attend a digital rally opposing contact tracing. “The aim of presidency is to not defend our well being. The aim of presidency is to guard our constitutional rights and liberties,” Hotze stated within the e mail.
On Aug. 2, Hartman despatched one other companywide e mail urging all staff to take the drug Budesonide to protect towards the virus “[whether] you could have signs or not.” Budesonide — a steroid that’s being pushed as a coronavirus treatment by a single Texas physician who can also be a former Republican congressional candidate — is not recommended by health experts and has received little testing.
“It’s attending to the purpose the place the workers don’t really feel secure there anymore,” the third Hartman Revenue REIT worker stated of their boss. “He’s not ready to provide medical recommendation.”
In early July, Texas made masks mandatory statewide when in public, however guidelines for companies are nonetheless being set by particular person counties. In Harris County, masks are solely required in companies that “[provide] items or providers on to the general public.”
“[Hartman Income REIT management] declare that they’re exempt from the masks mandate as a result of we technically don’t serve the general public, which is a bunch of crap,” the third worker stated. “We’ve got outsiders that tour our buildings, we now have outsiders that are available to ship packages, to inquire about leasing.”
The one time they should put on masks, the worker stated, is when a tenant requires it with a purpose to enter their house.
“[Hartman] went so far as to hold posters within the elevator that say that masks usually are not required,” the worker stated.
It’s laborious to say what Hartman’s staff can do about their state of affairs, in response to Obernauer, the NYCOSH government director. “I feel the large downside right here is the problem of enforcement,” Obernauer stated. “I imply, who do employees name in a state of affairs like this the place they’re being informed they will’t put on a masks?”
“I simply don’t perceive why the states aren’t actively saying, ‘That is the place you go and that is who you contact,’” Obernauer stated. “Why isn’t there like a 311 quantity that employees can name?”
Some states, together with Massachusetts and New York, have launched hotlines or on-line grievance types for employees who discover coronavirus security violations of their office and want to report them anonymously. The Texas RioGrande Legal Aid nonprofit group has urged employees who imagine their office is unsafe throughout the pandemic to file a whistleblower grievance with OSHA.
Lawrence Gostin, a Georgetown College international well being legislation knowledgeable, informed BuzzFeed Information he thinks there needs to be a “nationwide normal for sporting masks,” and that they need to be required for workplaces in enclosed indoor areas.
“If employers do not enable staff and/or clients to put on masks it locations everybody at risk,” Gostin stated. “Nobody ought to should danger a critical illness just by working or procuring.”
For now, the employees at Hartman Revenue REIT are specializing in both therapeutic from the coronavirus or hoping to not be the subsequent one contaminated.
“It’s irritating for everybody, as a result of this isn’t the time to go attempting to find a job,” the primary worker stated. “It’s unhappy [when] your organization isn’t making you are feeling secure, and is as a substitute making folks really feel scared.”
“That’s his proper to not put on a masks,” the worker stated. “However what about our rights to guard ourselves?”
