Now that vaccinations against COVID-19 infections are becoming available, employer responses to the pandemic will include when to recommend, support, or even require employee vaccinations. While workplace safety considerations might support all these efforts, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has just issued a reminder that the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 require employers to craft their vaccination policies in ways that won’t violate anti-discrimination provisions. The remainder of this note discusses EEOC guidance published on December 16, 2020.
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EEOC provides guidance for employer requirements for COVID-19 vaccinations
Posted by Jon Elliott on Mon, Jan 04, 2021
Tags: Health & Safety, EEOC, Coronavirus, CDC, Covid-19, ADA, Vaccine, Immunization, Vaccination
OSHA recommends employers consider whether COVID-19 risks affect workplace ventilation
Posted by Jon Elliott on Tue, Dec 22, 2020
The US Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) requires employers to ensure workplace air quality, as part of the agency’s broad mission to protect workers’ safety and health. Instead of a single comprehensive standard, OSHA incorporates air-related issues into standards requiring employers to consider whether workplace conditions might require respiratory protections (which I discussed HERE), and additional standards addressing routine workplace air contaminants (which I discussed HERE), and special hazards of confined spaces (which I discussed HERE). OSHA also applies specific ventilation standards in workplaces that involve abrasive blasting; grinding, polishing, and buffing operations; and spray finishing operations.
Read MoreTags: Health & Safety, OSHA, Coronavirus, Covid-19
COVID masks may or may not be required by worker protection agencies
Posted by Jon Elliott on Mon, Dec 21, 2020
The US Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) requires that employees wear personal protective equipment (PPE) necessary to help protect them against identified workplace hazards. This equipment may protect against physical hazards—hard hats, safety glasses, tinted goggles, steel-toed shoes—or may protect against health hazards—respirators, self-contained breathing apparatus, gloves. OSHA does not formally consider cloth facemasks to be PPE, but does consider them “source control” that may prevent an infected person from spreading the virus – which means that they do provide protection to co-workers. OSHA and most other health and safety agencies therefore do at least recommend masks, and some require them in specified settings. The remainder of this note discusses agencies’ formal provisions regarding masks.
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Tags: Health & Safety, Coronavirus, Covid-19, PPE
During the COIVD-19 pandemic, there have been many reports of angry arguments between people who don’t want to wear masks or practice social distance and retail staff members trying to enforce local requirements. Some of these confrontations escalate to violence. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) provide formal guidelines to retail businesses, offering ways for protecting workers by “Limiting Workplace Violence Associated with COVID-19 Prevention Policies in Retail and Services Businesses.” The remainder of this note describes CDC’s latest guidance.
Read MoreTags: Health & Safety, OSHA, Workplace violence, Coronavirus, CDC, Covid-19, CCOHS
During 2020, the Trump Administration has seized on the economic disruptions from the COVID-19 pandemic as the latest of its many rationales for easing environmental regulations. In May, the President issued an executive order (EO) directing agencies to “support the economic response to the COVID–19 outbreak” (EO 13924 “Regulatory Relief To Support Economic Recovery”; I discussed it HERE). That EO included directions to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to receive reports from individual federal agencies about their regulatory and enforcement responses, and authorized OMB to issue guidance. On August 31, 2020, OMB issued a “Memorandum for the Deputy Secretaries of Executive Departments and Agencies – Implementation of Section 6 of Executive Order 13924” (Memorandum M-20-31; called “the Memo” below) offering this guidance.
Read MoreTags: Health & Safety, Coronavirus, Covid-19, OMB, Executive Order, Memorandum M-20-31, Economy, Administration Guidelines, EO 13924
Virginia adopts first standard specifically requiring workplace protections against COVID
Posted by Jon Elliott on Wed, Jul 22, 2020
In recent months, worker protection and public health agencies have issued increasingly stringent and detailed guidelines for employers to follow to reduce worker exposures to COVID-19. I’ve written about a number of these, including HERE and HERE. Over the same months, many workplaces have also been affected by state and local government mandates designed to protect public health in places the public (at least previously) frequent – these include temporary closures of many types of organizations, and restrictions such as masks at others.
Read MoreTags: Health & Safety, Coronavirus, CDC, Safety and Health at Work, Covid-19, VOSH, DOLI, PPE, Virginia
On June 18, 2020, the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issued new guidance to assist businesses deemed “non-essential” during the COVID-19 pandemic as they reopen their workplaces. OSHA’s new “Guidance on Returning to Work” sets forth a number of basic principles that OSHA recommends guide employer actions, including specific examples. The document also reminds readers that responsibilities always apply under OSHA’s Employer’s General Duty Clause, references a number of existing OSHA standards that apply to re-opening activities and reopened workplaces, and identifies other sources of guidance and requirements.
Read MoreTags: Health & Safety, OSHA, EEOC, Coronavirus, CDC, Covid-19, Back-to-Work
President Trump directs agencies to ease regulations to ease economic burdens of COVID-19
Posted by Jon Elliott on Wed, Jun 24, 2020
President Trump has issued the latest in a series of executive orders (EOs) to reduce and repeal formal federal regulations. This month’s EO directs federal agencies to do so in order to “support the economic response to the COVID–19 outbreak” (EO 13924 “Regulatory Relief To Support Economic Recovery”).
Read MoreTags: Health & Safety, Coronavirus, Covid-19, eo, OMB
Is that workplace COVID case work related? OSHA revises enforcement review of employer determinations
Posted by Jon Elliott on Wed, May 27, 2020
Effective May 26, 2020, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) revised its (interim) enforcement guidance for its inspectors and personnel use when investigating whether an employer properly classified a workplace illness involving COVID-19. This guidance expands and replaces the version OSHA issued on April 10 -- it does not affect the agency’s broader enforcement guidance for cases considering whether an employer unreasonably exposed employees to COVID-19 (which I wrote about here), although it’s easy to imagine scenarios where inspectors could be called upon to investigate both types of potential violations. OSHA states this guidance will remain effective until the present public health crisis ends, unless revised again.
Read MoreTags: Health & Safety, OSHA, Coronavirus, Safety and Health at Work, Workplace hygiene, Covid-19
OSHA issues interim enforcement procedures for COVID-19 cases
Posted by Jon Elliott on Wed, Apr 22, 2020
I wrote recently about guidance from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to help employers protect their workers against COVID-19 (coronavirus) infection. (see HERE).
Read MoreTags: OSHA, Coronavirus, CDC, Covid-19, Compliance Safety