Construction and contracting firms are urging OSHA to soften its guidance on how the sector should record workplace absences due to COVID-19 during the current pandemic, warning that the current requirement to determine if an infection is “work-related” will put employers “in an almost impossible position.”
The Senate’s massive $2 trillion emergency bill to address fallout from the coronavirus pandemic provides billions of dollars to increase supply of personal protective equipment (PPE) for healthcare workers, but does not mandate an OSHA emergency standard for the workers that House Democrats are seeking.
OSHA has reworked weeks-old guidance for waste companies where workers could handle material contaminated by COVID-19 to say that the virus “does not require special precautions” other than those usually needed for waste handling, reinforcing claims by waste firms that their workers are already protected.
Two top House Democrats are urging Vice President Mike Pence to protect health care workers from coronavirus risks by immediately appointing a senior Trump administration official to coordinate the supply and distribution of personal protective equipment (PPE) to the workers who are at high risk of exposure.
OSHA has issued temporary guidance for discretionary enforcement of its respiratory protection standard that eases some requirements in order to boost access to adequate filtering facepiece respirators for healthcare workers during the coronavirus pandemic, but the guide falls short of Democrats’ calls for an emergency healthcare standard.
The Trump administration has blocked language in Democrats’ proposed coronavirus response bill that would force OSHA to set a temporary “emergency” standard to supply healthcare workers with protective gear, and the hospital industry is warning that the gear is not available in the quantities an OSHA rule would require.
Federal agencies are scrambling to protect the U.S. workforce from the coronavirus threat, with EPA announcing that its staff should be prepared to soon start teleworking to reduce exposure risks and OSHA detailing a range of voluntary steps companies can take to reduce employees’ risks depending on their potential exposure.
House Democrats are pushing legislation that would force OSHA to issue an emergency temporary standard to protect healthcare workers caring for patients suffering from coronavirus, noting there is no such mandatory federal policy and that Centers for Disease Control (CDC) guidance to protect the workers is not binding.
Congress’ supplemental $7.8 billion funding bill to tackle the spread of the coronavirus includes $10 million for the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) to pursue worker-based training to prevent and reduce exposures to the virus of hospital employees, emergency first responders, and other workers at risk.
The California Chamber of Commerce is warning employers that state regulators are poised to adopt likely expensive and burdensome new worker safety regulations in the coming year, including tighter lead-exposure standards, more stringent wildfire smoke protections, and first-time indoor heat protection measures.