There are few options to hold companies accountable. After Hurricane Katrina, workers successfully turned to the courts to demand unpaid wages. Fourteen years later, the COVID-19 pandemic created a unique opportunity to demand protective equipment and better conditions, said John Philo, a lawyer who now represents many disaster-restoration workers in another labor-related lawsuit.

In 2020, Resilience Force and the Sugar Law Center for Economic and Social Justice sued a Servpro franchise in Michigan and three subcontractors for allegedly mistreating workers who cleaned up after major flooding driven by unseasonably heavy rains in Midland, Michigan. The workers allege that in the midst of the pandemic, they were denied proper health and safety gear as they tore down water-logged buildings filled with mold. … see Center for Public Integrity