Blake Shuart: COVID-19 liability immunity is a bad idea

COVID-19 has placed our lawmakers in a time crunch as they mull over their priorities for the one-day closeout of the 2020 session on Thursday. All possibilities are out on the table, but common sense tells us this quick spurt of partisan warfare will not exactly produce an avalanche of new policy. The time is too short and the battles too vicious for much to be accomplished.

But if the big business factions are successful, there is sure to be one policy objective that makes it across the finish line: blanket immunity from liability for businesses when workers, customers or patients are exposed to the virus. The clear message: We want the profits — not the liabilities.

These proposals ignore the safety of hundreds of thousands of Kansans who go to work every day — especially the frontline workers in healthcare, meatpacking, food services, manufacturing, and the other essential businesses on which we depend. Common sense tells us that business risk helps facilitate safety in the workplace. When the risk goes away, safety is compromised.

With all we have suffered over the past two months, it is our workers and consumers who need protection — not the businesses that have already paid to insure their risk.

If these liability immunities become law, workers may be stonewalled from obtaining workers’ compensation coverage for COVID-19-related treatment — even though they contracted the virus on the job. Some of the most vulnerable subsets of our population — disabled individuals and senior citizens — will lose their right to legal recourse if they are killed due to negligence. Nursing home residents will be placed at greater risk because the facilities that care for them will face zero consequences for practicing poor infection control.

Blanket liability immunities never make sense. Our judicial system works. It is fair and has all the necessary checks in place to make sure legal cases without merit are thrown out. We need to trust Kansas juries and judges to do their jobs.

Recent national research shows a majority of citizens on both sides of the aisle are in agreement: Granting guaranteed immunity from coronavirus liability is a bad idea. Seventy-two percent of Democrats oppose these policies; 56% of Republicans oppose them; and 64% of Independents oppose them as well.

Other important survey findings from Hart Research Associates: 64% of those surveyed expect some businesses will cut corners as they reopen. Of those, 77% oppose guaranteed immunity. Even 42% of the respondents who believed the businesses would not cut corners still opposed liability immunity.

Citizens do not lose their constitutional rights during a pandemic. Our public health crisis has predictably led to the usual pleas for immunity from the usual suspects, but make no mistake: This Legislation is an opportunity for its proponents to score a few quick points — not a shield against unfairness or junk lawsuits. The business risk is already insured, our constitutional guarantees are already in place, and our jury system already works. Now it’s time to get our people back to work.

Gov. Laura Kelly and our lawmakers should think long and hard about both the ramifications of these proposals and the time crunch under which they have been proposed. There is no time for full consideration or meaningful debate. There is also no time for Kansas citizens to be fully heard on these crucial issues. If our Legislature intends to do one day’s worth of business, it ought to strive to help as many Kansans as possible that day. These business immunities are no emergency. But protecting our constitution is always an emergency — on May 21 and every other day.