New Guidelines Aren’t Enough. Maximus CEO Bruce Caswell Needs to Meet with Workers Now

After repeated demands from workers to take necessary steps to protect them, Maximus finally announced yesterday that they are now taking a no exception stance on social distancing within the workplace.

“This action is long overdue from Maximus,” said Sylvia Walker, a Maximus call center employee in Bogalusa, LA. “The fact that it took them this long to issue real guidance on social distancing is the perfect example of why workers are calling on Maximus CEO Bruce Caswell to meet with our CWA organizing committee immediately to work with us on implementing these safety guidelines and to make sure workers are able to consistently take advantage of paid leave to stop this epidemic.”

“They call us ‘human capital,’ but it’s only when they faced intense public pressure from its workers and unfavorable media attention that they finally issued a clear social distancing policy that recognizes that our lives have value,” said Cassie Ludwig, who works at the Maximus call center in London, KY. “Bruce Caswell needs to meet with us now.”

###

Background

Maximus is a giant government contractor specializing in running outsourced administrative services for federal and state government agencies, primarily in the fields of health and human services. It is the largest provider of contact center services to the federal government, and the largest provider of Medicaid administrative services to state governments.  

Maximus’ poor treatment of its workers has been drawing attention from local and national media. New York Magazine recently broke a story about Maximus’ national anti-union campaign, revealing the crux of a larger problem at the company: most Maximus workers are paid low wages, and many can’t even afford prescriptions and necessary procedures; a “uniquely American irony” for health care administrative workers, as NYMag put it.

Read more about the company's anti-union campaign here: https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2020/02/maximus-health-insurance-union-pay-wage-theft/