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Update: The Emergency Temporary Standard was published in the Federal Register on June 21, 2021 as an interim final rule.

On June 10, 2021, the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) released the first nationwide emergency workplace safety rule per President Joe Biden’s January executive order directing the agency to pursue an emergency temporary standard for COVID-19. The newly published emergency temporary standard (ETS) applies only to employers in the healthcare industry, and requires such employers to protect their workers against on-the-job COVID-19 infections. Other employers should consult OSHA’s separately published guidance applicable to workers not covered by the ETS, also published on June 10 and covered in our separate blog post.

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Continue Reading OSHA issues COVID-19 emergency temporary standard for healthcare settings

On June 10, 2021, the same day that it released its long-anticipated COVID-19 emergency temporary standard (ETS) for healthcare settings (which we discuss here), the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) also issued updated COVID-19 guidance for non-healthcare workplaces (Guidance). The Guidance provides that, with limited exceptions, employers generally need not implement any COVID-19 safety measures for fully vaccinated workers but should continue to take a multi-pronged approach to protecting unvaccinated workers and those who are “otherwise at-risk” due to compromised immunity. Unlike the healthcare ETS, the Guidance for non-healthcare settings is advisory and not legally binding.
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Continue Reading OSHA issues updated COVID-19 guidance for non-healthcare settings

UPDATE: On April 21, 2021, we wrote the following blog post describing guidance from OSHA that required, in certain circumstances, that employers record adverse COVID-19 vaccine reactions in their OSHA logs. On May 21, 2021, OSHA updated its FAQs to reverse its guidance on when employers should record adverse COVID-19 vaccine reactions. Employers now do…

On April 6, 2021, the U.S. Department of Labor Secretary Marty Walsh placed a “hold” on the implementation of a potential U.S. Occupational Safety and Health (OSHA) COVID-19 Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS), which would set a national COVID-19 safety standard for OSHA-covered employers throughout the United States. While President Biden’s inauguration day Executive Order directed…

As employers are revising their return to work protocols in light of increased vaccination efforts and the prospect of increased on-site work, the federal government has been busy implementing additional COVID-19 safety measures for the workplace, including targeted on-site inspections of workplaces where workers may have been or are likely to be exposed to SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19).

Among other actions, on March 12, 2021, the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issued a new National Emphasis Program (NEP), effective immediately, prioritizing inspections for “high-hazard industries or activities” where there is a hazard for contracting COVID-19 at the workplace. The NEP, published alongside an Updated Interim Enforcement Response Plan for Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) (ERP) is a result of President Biden’s inauguration day Executive Order in which he directed OSHA to focus its enforcement on COVID-19 efforts. President Biden’s executive order called for OSHA to consider implementing a potential nationwide Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS). The NEP and ERP suggest that an ETS may be issued in the future by stating that if an ETS is issued, its requirements will take precedence over OSHA’s currently-available standards.

The stated goal of the NEP is to “significantly reduce or eliminate worker exposures to SARS-CoV-2 by targeting industries and worksites where employees may have a high frequency of close contact exposures and therefore, controlling the health hazards associated with such exposures. This goal will be accomplished by a combination of inspection targeting, outreach to employers, and compliance assistance…”…
Continue Reading OSHA issues National Emphasis Program and Enforcement Response Plan, targeting certain industries for inspections

On May 19, 2020, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issued Revised Enforcement Guidance (Guidance) requiring employers to investigate whether employee COVID-19 infections are “work-related” for the purpose of determining whether a record must be made of such infections. This Guidance, which is effective on May 26, 2020, backtracks from OSHA’s prior April 10 guidance which had previously relaxed recordkeeping obligations on all non-healthcare, emergency response, or correctional institution employers for COVID-19 illnesses. …
Continue Reading OSHA requires all employers to investigate whether COVID-19 infections are “work-related”