Some North Texas Nail Salon Workers Not Ready To Return To Work During Coronavirus Pandemic
FORT WORTH and RICHARDSON, Texas (CBSDFW.COM) - Under Governor Greg Abbott's plan to restart Texas' economy, restaurants, hair salons and nail salons have reopened, but it's not back to business as usual.
Area nail salons are having to make several adjustments and some employees are not ready to come back to work yet.
"For the past couple days it's been very busy," Park Place Nail Spa owner Cami Pham said.
At her Fort Worth salon, there's hand sanitizer out front, everyone is required to wear a mask and there's not enough socially distanced seats to keep up with customer demand.
"After two month of staying inside the house they want to have nice nails, they want to get pampered so we're staying extra hours until 9 p.m.," Pham said.
"It's been crazy," Poshe Nail Salon manager Jake Nguyen said. "A lot of people want to come back and get their services done."
At the Richardson salon, they're taking the same precautions and seeing the same demand, but only four of their 13 employees feel comfortable coming back to work.
"For their safety, we respect their decisions," Nguyen said. "Some of them are not fully back yet. So like I said, we just try to work with what we have."
When it comes to those receiving unemployment because of the COVID-19 emergency, the Texas Workforce Commission is now allowing claimants to keep receiving benefits if they choose not to return to work for certain reasons.
Those reasons are:
*Being high risk - 65 & older
*Having household members who are high risk
*Diagnosed with COVID-19
*Family member diagnosed with COVID-19
*Currently quarantined
*Or their child's school or daycare is closed with no alternatives available
Any other situation will be subject to a case by case review by TWC based on individual circumstances.