Buried in the new Occupational Safety and Health Administration COVID-19 emergency temporary standard (ETS) is a reminder to employers about new alternative requirements for use of respirators to help control workplace...more
Under the federal Occupational Safety and Health Act, states may elect to enforce their own health and safety programs in lieu of federal OSHA exercising enforcement authority. A number of states such as North Carolina and...more
With OSHA’s Emergency Temporary Standard requiring COVID-19 vaccinations for employers with 100 or more employees to be released shortly, a number of states have begun efforts to counter such mandates, or place additional...more
The Safer Federal Workforce Task Force has issued a guidance document intended to help implement President Joe Biden’s executive order requiring COVID-19 vaccinations and other measures for all federal workers and U.S....more
10/7/2021
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Vaccinations ,
Workplace Safety
Last week, the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration announced enhanced and expanded efforts to address heat-related illnesses in the workplace. The new initiative was prompted by excessive heat this summer in...more
A few days following President Joe Biden’s announcement of the COVID-19 vaccination or testing mandate for employers with 100 or more employees, the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration held a webinar to...more
In recent months, we have reported extensively on the various carrot-and-stick approaches taken by employers to try to incentivize employees to get the COVID-19 vaccine. In recent weeks, we have seen employers frustrated over...more
We received notice last week from a health care client that, as of October, any employee of a vendor that enters their work premises must provide proof of vaccination from the coronavirus. For our firm, this means that...more
Last Friday, the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration issued updated guidance for employers on best practices for avoiding workplace spread of the COVID-19 virus. It incorporates revised CDC guidelines...more
Last month, a Colorado business owner was sentenced to 10 months in prison following the death of one of his workers in a trenching accident. The deceased employee had not been trained in appropriate trenching techniques, and...more
A week ago, we published an alert explaining the South Carolina Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation’s issuance of a press release announcing that the state has decided to issue a general infectious disease standard...more
On Tuesday, the South Carolina Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation announced its intent to develop a general OSHA standard intended to address workplace hazards from all infectious diseases in the workplace. The...more
The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s emergency temporary safety standard (ETS) for healthcare employers took effect July 6. Affected employers have 30 days to come into compliance with the new rule....more
The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s COVID-19 emergency temporary standard for the health care industry takes effect July 6. However, states that enforce their own OSHA programs have different...more
In addition to its new COVID-19 emergency temporary standard for health care employers, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration released a companion revision to its general guidance on mitigating and preventing the...more
Last week, a federal district court judge in Texas dismissed a lawsuit filed by a group of Houston hospital workers who object to their employer’s requirement that all employees receive the COVID-19 vaccination. The...more
Yesterday, the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration issued an emergency temporary standard (ETS) requiring COVID-19 exposure control practices for the healthcare industry. OSHA originally considered a broader...more
A new Florida law restricting businesses from asking customers about COVID-19 vaccination status or denying goods or services on this basis has made headlines nationwide. Similar “anti-vaccine passport” laws have been passed...more
A new wave of lawsuits is attempting to impose legal liability on companies whose alleged negligence resulted in an employee becoming infected with the COVID-19 virus and then passing the illness to a household member who...more
The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration appears to be losing interest in issuing temporary emergency regulations related to COVID-19 safety practices. Changing science and diminishing infection rates due to...more
As more businesses move toward ending remote working arrangements, we have had a number of questions from clients with regard to employee requests to continue working from home for medical reasons. The employees cite a...more
As more Americans receive COVID-19 vaccinations, a number of our clients have asked whether employees who provide proof of such vaccination can be excused from workplace COVID-19 control measures such as mask wearing....more
On March 12, the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration announced a COVID-19 National Emphasis Program focusing enforcement efforts on employers with high frequencies of close employee contact with other...more
With all the recent discussion over the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration planning to issue a temporary COVID-19 safety standard, employers may not recall that the agency has had a more general infectious...more
In a recent interview, the former head of the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration indicated his belief that many employers are not taking adequate measures to address the real risks for COVID-19 in the...more