PMPA Webinar Slides: My Employee Tested Positive for COVID-19 – What Do I Do Now?

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PMPA Webinar Slides: My Employee Tested Positive for COVID-19 – What Do I Do Now?

With COVID-19 cases spiking across the country, employers need to be ready when an employee advises that he or she tested positive or was exposed to someone who has the virus. A positive diagnosis for one employee triggers a host of questions and considerations.

In this webinar, Melanie Webber discusses the steps to take if your employee tests positive, has been in close contact with someone who has tested positive for or been diagnosed with the virus, or needs to take time off to care for someone in quarantine or isolation.

During the webinar, attendees receive answers to these questions, and more:
• When an employee tests positive, do I need to notify all employees?
• If an employee has symptoms but refuses to see a doctor, can I require the employee to stay home?
• How is “close contact” defined now?
• Do we have to notify the Dept. of Health of positive tests?
• If an employee has been in close contact with someone who has tested positive, how long should they remain off work?
• When can I require a doctor’s note to return to work?
• Am I required to pay employees who self-quarantine, but do not have a medical diagnosis?
• Does the Families First Coronavirus Relief Act (“FFCRA”) require me to pay employees who have been in close contact with someone diagnosed with COVID-19?

VIEW WEBINAR HERE

DOWNLOAD PRESENTATION SLIDES HERE

As Melanie promised during the webinar, below are the 2 FFCRA documents that were requested during the Q&A portion of the webinar.

DONWLOAD FFCRA LEAVE REQUEST FORM

DONWLOAD FFCRA LEAVE RESPONSE FORM

PMPA Business Trends October 2020

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PMPA Business Trends October 2020

Precision Machining Industry Steady as She Goes in October.

Sales came in at just above the five year average for the month of October, and out performed the Fed’s Industrial Production (IP) and Manufacturing Output indexes.

Three of our four sentiment indicators remained positive and steady, with Employment Prospects dropping just 2 percent from 88 percent in September to 86 percent in October. Seventy-nine shops participated. Hours of work scheduled increased by one hour in October.

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ITR Economics Report for PMPA – November 2020

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ITR Economics Report for PMPA – November 2020

Despite the uncertainty in the news cycle regarding the election, recounts, Covid-19, and the markets, many monthly economic indicators are rising in a positive direction.

PMPA’s latest Business Trends Report showed strong out-performance over Fed Industrial Production and Manufacturing output indicators. The latest ITR November 2020 Economic Report for the Precision Machining Industry marshals a host of facts about our markets to explain their positivity. “Empirical evidence made it clear that results were likely to surpass expectations for the industrial and consumer sectors… revising our expectations accordingly.”

Of course, the caveat of a fall/winter flu season and shutdowns remains possible- but the “Empirical evidence” supports optimism at this point in time from the economic data. What are YOU doing to prepare your processes and performers for this rising trend?

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The Institute for Trend Research (ITR) quarterly reports focus on major areas of economic growth and decline in key market segments for the Precision Machined Products Industry. They are provided to PMPA members as part of the association’s overall business intelligence program and are used as a management tool to help PMPA members plan for what lies ahead and which markets they should focus on in a complex manufacturing environment.

PMPA Business Trends September 2020

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PMPA Business Trends September 2020

Our Shops Are Proving to be “Essential Manufacturing” to the Economic Recovery! September Precision Machining Industry Sales Rate of Growth Accelerates 8.4% over August as Federal Reserve’s Industrial Production Index Fell 0.6%, Manufacturing Output fell 0.3% All sentiment indicators increased or remained level for the fifth consecutive month.

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PMPA’s Latest Membership Manufacturing Survey Results

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PMPA’s Latest Membership Manufacturing Survey Results

Thanks to the 72 companies that responded to our latest request for updated information about your shops’ current status and expectations going forward.

We have forwarded these results to our team at The Franklin Partnership who will use this to help craft policy in Washington D.C.

Typically we share some inferences from our work, but this survey is clear and hardly needs any additional sensemaking. However, the fact that 86% of shops have no skilled employees on furlough, (Question #4) and 36% of respondents are actively seeking skilled workers right now (Q #5) are convincing evidence of our positive future.

Here are some other very interesting points to consider:

The dearth of applications for employment (Q #7) is reported by half of our shops – attributed to very generous unemployment payouts.
We found the fact that 2/3 of our shops reported no confirmed cases of COVID-19 (Q #9) to be interesting.
~35% of shops reported some Reshoring activity, though at small dollar amounts (Q #11 & #12)
88% of respondents reported PPP loans (Q #13) which permitted retention of employees according to 89% of respondents (Q #15)
PPP Loan Forgiveness remains a mystery and an important one to be solved for our member companies….
86% of respondents would seek another forgivable PPP loan as described in (Q #18)

Again, thanks to those companies who took the time to respond and share with the rest of us their current status.

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PMPA Welcomes Two New Affinity Partners

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PMPA Welcomes Two New Affinity Partners

PMPA is pleased to welcome two new Affinity Partners to benefit our member companies:

APPI Energy provides members an opportunity to save on energy costs and have access to energy audits, LED lighting, solar panel installations and utility bill management.

SEE HOW APPI ENERGY CAN BENEFIT YOU

Paperless Parts offers members sales and quoting platforms for job shop manufacturers which provide key digital quoting capabilities and educational tools. Sign up for their October 15th introductory webinar and visit the PMPA website to learn more about the benefits they can offer.

SEE HOW PAPERLESS PARTS CAN BENEFIT YOU

PMPA Business Trends August 2020

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PMPA Business Trends August 2020

The PMPA Business Trends Sales index inched up to 119, up 1.7% over July. While this small increase might be seen as a negative, the greater picture is that this 119 value is a 42% increase in sales over the low point for the year ( April 2020-just four months ago) obviously positive. While the pace of improvement is slowing, we continue to outperform the Fed’s measures for IP and Manufacturing. We believe that this is because our customers still are maintaining very low inventories for components. Low levels of component inventory at our customers, leads to urgent needs and orders for our parts as demand improves.. All sentiment indicators are strongly positive for the fourth consecutive month. Our outlook remains positive, as our industry sales outpace those of the Fed indicators as the economy continues to recover.

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U.S. Tariff Reversal on Aluminum from Canada

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U.S. Reverses Course on Tariffs on Aluminum Imports from

Canada

PMPA is a founding member of the CAMMU Coalition. We are pleased to be able to pass along the following breaking news.

The U.S. announced today that it will not impose 10 percent tariffs on aluminum imports from Canada, stating that the U.S. would resume duty-free treatment of aluminum from Canada retroactive to September 1.

As you may recall, the U.S. announced in August that it would re-impose Section 232 tariffs on aluminum from Canada, claiming a surge in imports. CAMMU opposed the tariffs, signing an industry letter and issues press statements (see here and here).

The announcement by U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer was made just before the Canadian Government was expected to announce retaliatory tariffs on U.S. products.

Amb. Lighthizer stated that the U.S. would set monthly quotas for imports of Canadian aluminum of 83,000 tons in September and November, and 70,000 tons in October and December, and stated that if shipments “exceed U.S. expectations, the United States will impose the 10 percent tariff retroactively on all shipments made in that month.” However, a Canadian Government spokesperson said that it has not “agreed to anything” with respect to quotas and that the U.S. plan was “unilateral.”

PMPA Business Trends July 2020

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PMPA Business Trends July 2020

With 79 companies responding, the PMPA Business Trends Index for July increased 39.3% to 117 compared to the year’s low in April of 84. It came in up 4.5% above June’s 112 value. This 117 value is down just 2.8 points or 1.4% from the 5-year average for July of 119.8. Our shops’ 4.5% increase in July compared to the Federal Reserve’s reported increase of 3.0% in industrial production- and compared to the reported 3.4% increase for manufacturing output- shows that our precision machining shops continue to recover faster than the broader manufacturing industry.

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ITR Economic Report – August 2020

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ITR Economic Report – August 2020

Apparently our optimism is congruent with theirs.

As voiced in ITR Economics’ most current economic report…“The current downturn was caused by a natural disaster and not by economic fundamentals, which has important implications for the subsequent recovery trend …

Even more encouraging is that the US Personal Savings Rate spiked to record highs, signaling that consumers were able to set aside part of the stimulus money.

Taken together, the aforementioned evidence is cause for measured optimism…

Full recovery is expected to come faster this cycle relative to the Great Recession, which took about five years..”

Read the full August 2020 report below, as prepared especially for PMPA by ITR Economics.

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