OSHA has narrowed its guidance on when employers must report COVID-19 hospitalizations to the agency as “work-related,” setting a requirement that a case is only reportable when it comes within 24 hours of a workplace exposure to the virus despite the disease’s long incubation time that means infections take a week or more to manifest.
Oregon has released an updated draft of its COVID-19 emergency temporary standard (ETS) that extends to all employers the requirement to craft exposure risk assessments for the virus but removes mandatory paid leave for workers subject to medical quarantine orders, among other changes to the rule slated to take effect Oct. 12.
Democrats have unveiled a scaled-back version of their COVID-19 relief package in what could be their final effort to restart negotiations with the White House ahead of the November elections, but even the more limited bill maintains the demand for an OSHA standard to address the virus, potentially dooming it in the Senate.
California OSHA (Cal/OSHA) is citing more health care and other facilities for allegedly not protecting employees from COVID-19, most recently acting against six hospitals, skilled nursing facilities and a police department with more than $100,000 in proposed fines.
Critics of Virginia’s first-in-the-nation emergency temporary standard (ETS) for COVID-19 are challenging the policy in court, arguing that it infringes on a host of constitutional rights and that the state bypassed its own rulemaking procedures to enact the policy.
California OSHA (Cal/OSHA) plans to enact the country’s third emergency temporary standard (ETS) for COVID-19 after its standards board voted Sept. 17 to accept unions’ petition for a binding rule -- just as the state government approved a bill requiring worker notices and even facility closures in response to workplace coronavirus outbreaks.
OSHA is continuing to unveil citations against employers over alleged failures to protect their workers from COVID-19, but labor unions and other Trump administration foes say the small financial penalties the agency is seeking are further evidence that its response to the pandemic has been unacceptably weak.
A bipartisan group of House moderates is backing a compromise proposal on COVID-19 relief including a limited employee liability waiver with a role for OSHA, signaling potential movement toward new negotiations after President Donald Trump called on Republicans to accept a higher price tag for a consensus bill.
California OSHA (Cal/OSHA) has recently fined more than a dozen companies a total of over $500,000 for allegedly failing to protect workers from COVID-19, with the bulk being levied on a frozen food manufacturer and the temporary employment firm it uses at more than $200,000 each.
OSHA has issued what appears to be its first citation to an employer for failing to protect workers from COVID-19 infections under the OSH Act’s general duty clause, a provision that attorneys have predicted will be the agency’s main authority for enforcing its array of sector-specific virus guidances during the pandemic.