Emerging Safety Issues

OSHA intends to issue its long-term healthcare industry standard for preventing COVID-19 infections in September, according to the agency’s newly updated unified agenda of future regulatory actions, while other key rulemakings are being delayed by months or more from their previously announced targets.

California OSHA (Cal/OSHA) has released a draft long-term COVID-19 rule that is already drawing employer concerns for its stricter definition of “close contact,” but the same stakeholders are welcoming plans to end the controversial “exclusion pay” requirement that mandates compensation for workers removed from their duties under the standard.

OSHA says it has secured a settlement agreement with several subsidiaries of the food-processing giant JBS Foods that will mandate infection-control plans at seven plants across six states, after COVID-19 outbreaks at two of the facilities in 2020 led to seven worker deaths and hundreds of confirmed infections.

Unions and employers used the final round of written comments on OSHA’s planned long-term COVID-19 standard for healthcare facilities to renew and supplement their arguments on the scope of the rule, with labor groups offering an array of claims to support strict mandates while industry focused on responding to specific questions raised by officials.

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) is seeking comments on a strategy to bolster personal protective technology (PPT) for healthcare workers, saying the COVID-19 pandemic has underscored the need to support not only protective gear in the sector but technology supporting it like fit-testing and materials research.

California OSHA (Cal/OSHA) is posting new fact sheets and updated frequently asked question (FAQ) documents for the recently adopted third revision to its COVID-19 emergency temporary standard (ETS), highlighting changes to key definitions and requirements for testing, quarantining, face masking and more.

OSHA is urging Amazon and other companies to review their severe-weather emergency procedures and make improvements to further protect workers in such situations, following an investigation in the aftermath of a December tornado in Illinois that killed six contractors with the retail giant.

OSHA officials used the public hearing on a forthcoming permanent COVID-19 rule for healthcare facilities to press union representatives for more data and testimony to support the groups’ arguments that a stringent regulation is needed to protect workers, asking questions on workplace infections, cost management and a host of other issues.

Labor unions and safety groups are urging OSHA to reject employers’ calls to defer to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in any permanent COVID-19 safety standard for healthcare workers, saying that agency’s statutory mission and procedures are distinct from -- and less stringent than -- the OSH Act’s mandate to ensure safe workplaces.

Some employers are warning OSHA that any move to revive the emergency temporary standard (ETS) would be illegal while others are urging the agency to link any long-term COVID-19 safety standard for the healthcare sector with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidance in order to ensure flexibility in response to new research on the disease.