Amazon.com is asking a federal district court to reject a suit over its handling of the COVID-19 pandemic as an infringement on OSHA’s “primary jurisdiction” over workplace safety issues, arguing that allowing lawsuits to enforce state-level coronavirus policies would create “an inconsistent patchwork” of contradictory judicial orders.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is voicing support for another COVID-19 stimulus measure in response to the nationwide rise in infections, teeing up a battle over employer liability waivers that he says will be a GOP requirement in any pandemic bill but which Democrats and labor groups have opposed just as strongly.
OSHA is warning offshore fish-processing facilities to be prepared to quarantine workers who develop COVID-19 infections and to make plans for their safe transport back to shore, in the agency’s latest sector-specific virus guidance that highlights the challenges facing industries that depend on self-contained facilities.
Citing OSHA’s refusal to develop an employer safety standard to protect against COVID-19 infections, Virginia’s health department is moving forward with the country’s first workplace rule to prevent or reduce infections in the workplace that could be a model for other states to use.
Employment lawyers expect an “explosion” of lawsuits over workplace exposures to COVID-19 in the coming months and are warning employers to closely follow guidance from OSHA, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and other agencies to either avoid such complaints or provide solid defenses against them.
The Center for Progressive Reform (CPR), a think tank that advocates for “robust” health and safety rules, is floating an aggressive agenda for federal agencies and Congress to protect workers from COVID-19, including issuance of an emergency OSHA standard to prevent infections that the agency is refusing to issue.
The AFL-CIO is asking the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to review a three-judge panel’s decision rejecting its bid to force OSHA to craft an emergency temporary standard (ETS) for the COVID-19 pandemic, saying the panel judges “wholly failed to consider” several issues in their two-page ruling.
OSHA is ramping up release of several new guidance documents to aid employers in preventing COVID-19 infections as they reopen following states’ relaxation of limits on in-person gatherings and businesses, adding to the agency’s approach of using non-binding guides rather than binding rules to target the virus.
Legal firms are warning California employers that they could be targeted with tort litigation by workers who claim they contracted COVID-19 as a result of a company’s failure to properly carry out Cal/OSHA safety rules for the virus -- a potentially much greater financial risk for firms than an increase in worker compensation claims.
Democrats and pro-regulatory group Public Citizen are opposing Republicans’ push to waive liability for employers whose workers contract COVID-19 on the job, signaling what could be an intense political battle ahead as the Senate GOP has said the waivers will be a top priority for any future COVID-19 relief bill.