What I'm surprised about is that no companies have revived the "Hold Harmless" agreements. I would figure food warehouses would be the first to try and use these.....illegal.....documents.
LTL guy in a food warehouse doing his own sort & segregate? During a pandemic?....no lumper?
"Hold Harmless" agreements were something designed by Tort lawyers years ago,...to alleviate any business from claims or lawsuits,...if a contractor or customer gets hurt on their property,....by ANY method,....gross negligence by employees,.. hazardous conditions,....illegal acts,....
Fortunately,....they are illegal to impose on delivery personnel,....whose freight drayage contract requires delivery/pickup of that customer's products,.....legally requiring that delivery person to enter the property to perform contracted services.
An example: If you signed a "Hold Harmless" agreement at a consignee's gate pass as a condition to enter the property,....and one of their employees was smoking marijuana on his lunch break,.......and crushed you against the side of the trailer with a towmotor,...
....then, theoretically according to SOME Lawyers,......you could not sue that consignee's company, or even the employee,....for criminal negligence. You signed a "Hold Harmless" agreement........
I could see a warehouse requiring drivers who are on their dock doing sort & segregate for say,...hours,...using bathrooms, breakrooms, other facilities,....to sign "Hold Harmless" agreements,..pre-supposing the drivers might sue for being exposed to Coronavirus.
Those "agreements" are illegal,.....but SOME Lawyers claim if a driver signs one .."of his own free will...",...then he has "agreed" to never sue that business,...for ANYTHING,....including that business's mis-handling of CDC guidelines on Virus management, sanitizing, and mask-wearing.....in the event the driver suspects he may have caught Coronavirus on some filthy, non-mask-enforcing, "who-cares-about-a-virus"...dock.......
Your Tort rights are part of your Constitutional Rights,....as was explained to me by the Law firm our Local kept on retainer,....and you can't be forced to,....give them away to do business.....
It would be nice for Ernie and Crew to reinforce that Constitutional Right clearly,.....so drivers don't feel forced to sign such agreements...
.....during a pandemic,....
Or ever......