What does my business need to do to meet the Covid-19 OSHA requirements that the President just signed an executive order for?
Nothing…yet. On January 21st, 2021, the President signed an executive order instructing the Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupation Safety and Health (“OSHA”) to provide revised guidance on Covid-19 safety for workers within 2 weeks, and to consider whether there needs to be an emergency temporary standard related to Covid-19. The executive order itself does not create any requirements or standards for businesses to abide by, but only instructs federal agencies to begin creating such standards if they “are necessary”, and to issue such standards by March 15th, 2021. As OSHA has previously been unable to enforce Covid-19 related issues for the most part because an OSHA standard did not exist, the signing of the executive order is the first step to OSHA creating a standard, then legally enforcing such standard. Since the executive order does not create a standard, only authorizes the creation of one, there are no actions for a business to take immediately, but businesses should be aware that it is extremely likely OSHA will be issuing new Covid-19 related standards soon, and then enforcing such standards.
Executive Order on Protecting Worker Health and Safety | The White House
Derek Luster
Attorney at Law
