Name: Amid COVID-19 spike, Valero requires its employees to work at San Antonio headquarters
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Amid COVID-19 spike, Valero requires its employees to work at San Antonio headquarters

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This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigateWhen coronavirus struck San Antonio in March, most of the city’s major corporations sent their employees home to work remotely.For much of the past two months, however, Valero Energy Corp. has had its entire headquarters staff back in the office, even as dozens of employees at the site have tested positive for COVID-19 in recent weeks.Since June 1, about 1,800 employees have been working from Valero’s Northwest Side campus, where 43 workers have tested positive for COVID-19 since March, company memos sent to employees state.Thirty-two of those cases have cropped up in the past month, according to a document — a running list of confirmed cases — that Valero officials has shared with employees.The first employee at Valero’s campus to contract the virus tested positive March 19.Headquarters employees, mostly white-collar workers, were allowed to work from home beginning in mid-to-late March. Nearly all of them did, according to employees who asked to remain anonymous because they weren’t authorized to speak with the news media.However, Valero officials eventually directed employees to return to the office by June 1.Several employees said they’ve asked why they’re barred from working from home.“They won’t tell us. All they say is ‘Valero is not a work-from-home company — it’s not in our culture,’” one employee told the San Antonio Express-News. “They sent some corporate email saying, ‘We work stronger together’ or something like that. Our CEO was adamant we need to be in the office.”Joseph Gorder, chairman and CEO of Valero since 2014, is a member of President Donald Trump’s Great American Economic Revival Industry Groups, which were established in April to help the nation recover from the coronavirus-driven economic crash.Valero officials did not respond to requests for comment.Valero, the world’s second largest independent oil refiner, produces gasoline, jet fuel and other refined products, and is designated an essential business that’s part of the country’s critical infrastructure. The company operates 15 petroleum refineries and employs 10,000 workers globally.Employees at the headquarters said they were able to conduct their jobs without a hitch while working remotely.Workers at Valero’s refineries may not be able to successfully work off-site, but employees said the back-office tasks performed at the corporate headquarters are different.Most of the employees at the headquarters work in areas such as human resources, legal, accounting, business development and procurement.“I agree there are positions within Valero that are more in an operational standpoint, and they may not be able to work remotely,” an employee told the Express-News. “But I would say, overall, the majority of positions, at least at the San Antonio office, we could do remotely without any trouble or without any issues.”At NuStar Energy, the San Antonio oil pipeline and storage company, employees have been allowed to work from home through the pandemic. Exxon Mobil Corp. recently was at at its headquarters campus north of Houston.Ohio-based Marathon Petroleum, another oil refiner, had employees begin working remotely at the start of the pandemic, including workers at its North Side corporate office in San Antonio.The company since has restricted access to the San Antonio facility, allowing entry only for workers “whose jobs are essential and cannot be done from home,” a spokesman said. He wouldn’t specify how many employees currently are working in the office.Some of San Antonio’s larger employers also have held off on bringing employees back to the office.USAA, a insurance and financial services company, has about of its 35,000-person workforce working remotely, CEO Wayne Peacock said in a recent interview.At Frost Bank, spokesman Bill Day said between two-thirds and three-quarters of employees continue to work from home. Some have returned to work in the bank’s branches to hold appointments with customers.Rackspace Technology, the managed cloud services company, has had most of its , including the 2,200 workers assigned to its Windcrest headquarters.The state of Texas has put out guidelines to guide employers as they reopen offices. The state recommends employers clean and sanitize their facilities, screen employees with temperature checks and require face coverings.The guidelines say businesses should attempt to stagger workers’ schedules so fewer people are in the office, and also “continue to encourage individuals to work remotely if possible.”When they returned to Valero headquarters, workers said they received bags containing hand sanitizer, sanitizing wipes and masks.The company has hand-sanitizing stations throughout the campus, and signage is posted at entrances urging employees to socially distance.Mask-wearing initially was optional, though the company on June 29 issued a directive requiring employees to wear face masks when unable to socially distance.A breakdown of key state and local races and candidates in the May 24 primary runoff.“They started asking people to wear masks if they couldn’t socially distance, but I will say no one was wearing masks, absolutely no one,” an employee said. “ And forget about social distancing. You’re walking through the halls where you’re a foot away from someone, walking down stairs, going to the bathroom, break rooms — you’re constantly being exposed.”Employees at Valero expressed concern that they would be the next to contract the coronavirus, potentially putting their household family members at risk.“The big issue for me is concern for my family, and it’s affecting my personal family life. All of my family, everyone’s trying to do the right thing — stay in quarantine as much as possible — and I’m the exception to that,” an employee said.“We’re around (1,800 employees) that are then going back out through the community, going to grocery stores, whatever they’re doing, exposing not just the employees but the whole community to this,” the employee said.Mayor Ron Nirenberg didn’t respond to requests for comment.City Councilman Manny Pelaez, whose district encompasses Valero’s campus, said he spoke with company leaders after learning of the confirmed cases at the site. He said he was satisfied with the company’s precautions.“After learning about their health and safety protocols and special accommodations for staff, I was assured that Valero — one of the largest employers in District 8 — is going above and beyond to do right by their employees and the community,” Pelaez said.Valero initially brought back workers in different departments at different times. But by June 1, nearly all 1,800 employees had returned to the headquarters.Metro Health officials said that as long as companies follow the city’s mandated safeguards — such as maintaining a mask requirement — they can’t force an employer to have their employees work remotely.“We currently have widespread community transmission and every place/location that people have been in close quarters without practicing social distancing and use of face coverings is at risk for transmission/infection,” Metro Health spokeswoman Michelle Vigil said in an e-mail. “As long as a business is in compliance and ensures their employee’s safety, they are allowed to operate.”A Valero worker said morale has deteriorated in recent weeks as the number of confirmed cases at the site has risen.“For a company that always says ‘Employees are our No. 1 asset, we value safety,’ all of that has gone out the door. We’re just not even being treated like people. Our concerns are falling on deaf ears,” the employee said.Diego Mendoza-Moyers covers manufacturing, the automotive industry and the energy sector. To read more from Diego, . | Twitter:A breakdown of key state and local races and candidates in the May 24 primary runoff.

This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigateWhen coronavirus struck San Antonio in March, most of the city’s major corporations sent their employees home to work remotely.For much of the past two months, however, Valero Energy Corp. has had its entire headquarters staff back in the office, even as dozens of employees at the site have tested positive for COVID-19 in recent weeks.Since June 1, about 1,800 employees have been working from Valero’s Northwest Side campus, where 43 workers have tested positive for COVID-19 since March, company memos sent to employees...

Amid COVID-19 spike, Valero requires its employees to work at San Antonio headquarters

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