Campus workers sue UNC university system, cite unsafe conditions due to pandemic

At least 16 workers on campuses in the University of North Carolina school system are suing the schools for working conditions that put them "at an increased risk of exposure to COVID-19."

Workers at UNC said that they "should not be required to be exposed to an increased risk of getting sick" due to students' return to campus, said the lawsuit filed Monday by members of the North Carolina Public Service Workers Union, UE Local 150 and members of the North Carolina American Association of University Professors.

Bringing students back to campus places workers at higher risk of exposure to the virus, and despite masks, social distancing and hand-washing requirements implemented by the school, it is impossible to "control whether thousands of students located within their campus communities comply" with these requirements, said the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, filed at the Wake County Superior Court.

"Everyone involved in making the decision to reopen these campuses did so with the knowledge that it places these employees at a greater risk of exposure to COVID-19 than they would have otherwise been exposed to" had the schools gone online in the fall, said Gary K. Shipman, the lawyer who filed the case, in a statement.

The UNC system shut down residence halls when there were less than 10 cases reported in North Carolina in the spring, but now is reopening with some in-person classes as daily case numbers rise into the thousands.

In-person classes began at UNC-Chapel Hill, N.C. State University and other UNC System schools on Monday. Some institutions, including UNC Pembroke and Fayetteville State University, started on Aug. 5.

And since March, hundereds of cases have also been reported among students, employees and outside workers in UNC System, the most recent being in the past three weeks, with UNC-Chapel Hill reporting more than 40 cases on campus.

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The lawsuit "seeks nothing more than what the law requires – that the University of North Carolina and its constituent institutions and the Governor of North Carolina provide Employees a safe workplace; one that is free from the increased risks of exposure to COVID-19," said Shipman.

In addition to the lawsuit, 30 tenured faculty members wrote an open letter to UNC undergraduates in The Charlotte Observer, advising them to stay home for the fall semester.

“Your experience as a Chapel Hill undergraduate is a journey we are delighted to join and feel fortunate to be a part of," said the letter. "However, we cannot, in good conscience, perform that role on campus this semester. We need to stay safe from Covid-19 by staying at home – and we need you to stay home in order to protect yourselves and your fellow students."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: COVID-19: North Carolina university system defendant in suit against workers