OSHA and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have issued guidance for food manufacturing and processing companies to protect employees from COVID-19 risks, urging them craft detailed infection control plans among other measures and signaling that employers who refuse could face enforcement action.
The Department of Labor (DOL) has finalized a rule limiting OSHA and other agencies’ use of guidance documents, including setting notice-and-comment requirements for “significant” guides and barring officials from setting binding policy through guidance, creating potential hurdles for OSHA’s COVID-19 guidance strategy.
Industry attorneys say the Senate GOP caucus sees Democrats’ sudden push to block budget and service cuts at the Postal Service as a fresh opportunity to negotiate on the next COVID-19 response bill, circulating a “skinny” relief bill detailing Republicans’ preferred provisions including employer liability waivers.
Workers at a Pennsylvania meat-packing plant say OSHA violated its own inspection procedures when it investigated their claim of an “imminent” danger from COVID-19 exposures at the facility, and the workers say the OSH Act gives the agency no choice but to take enforcement action including a new surprise inspection.
The California Chamber of Commerce is leading a push for California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s (D) administration to intervene in a Cal/OSHA policy that would mandate companies to equip employees with N95 respirator masks to protect against wildfire smoke, saying it might be impossible to comply because of mask shortages due to COVID-19.
Amazon is touting a California state court ruling that dismissed a worker’s claims that the online retailer has adopted unlawfully lax workplace COVID-19 protections in a bid to fight a similar suit in federal court, arguing that federal judges should follow the same logic and defer to OSHA’s enforcement and rulemaking discretion.
OSHA has signed an “alliance” with the North American Meat Institute (NAMI), which represents meat and turkey processors, aiming to reduce COVID-19 exposure risks for employees in meatpacking facilities -- the latest step in the agency’s approach to issuing sector-specific, non-binding guides in lieu of binding standards for the pandemic.
Attorneys representing employers say OSHA is actively tracking workplaces’ compliance with COVID-19 guides crafted by the agency and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), warning that even though the documents are formally non-binding, employers who ignore them risk an OSHA enforcement action.
California’s OSHA (Cal/OSHA) standards board staff is recommending that the board deny a recent petition from labor groups to adopt a COVID-19-specific emergency temporary standard (ETS) to further protect employees from the virus, concluding that enforcement of comprehensive existing regulations is the best path forward.
OSHA has updated its COVID-19 guidance to employers by adding a provision urging mandatory cloth face coverings for workers as a “source control” measure to protect against exposure to the virus, saying studies have shown the coverings to be effective at containing the spread of the coronavirus.