Source: https://www.abcwi.org/wisconsin-contractor-blog/osha-issues-revised-enforcement-guidance-for-recording-cases-of-covid-19/
Timestamp: 2020-08-05 15:53:19
Document Index: 209913147

Matched Legal Cases: ['art 1904', '§ 1904', '§ 1904', 'art 1904', '§ 1904', '§ 1904', '§ 1904', '§ 1904', '§ 1904']

OSHA issues revised enforcement guidance for recording cases of COVID-19 - Associated Builders and Contractors | ABC of WI
, Posted 05/19/2020
WASHINGTON, DC – The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) the following memo regarding Revised Enforcement Guidance for Recording Cases of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)
THROUGH: AMANDA EDENS, Deputy Assistant Secretary
FROM: LEE ANNE JILLINGS, Acting Director Directorate of Technical Support and Emergency Management & PATRICK J. KAPUST, Acting Director, Directorate of Enforcement Programs
SUBJECT: Revised Enforcement Guidance for Recording Cases of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)
This memorandum provides updated interim guidance to Compliance Safety and Health Officers (CSHOs) for enforcing the requirements of 29 CFR Part 1904 with respect to the recording of occupational illnesses, specifically cases of COVID-19. On May 26, 2020, the previous memorandum on this topic (1) will be rescinded, and this new memorandum will go into and remain in effect until further notice. This guidance is intended to be time-limited to the current COVID-19 public health crisis. Please frequently check OSHA’s webpage at www.osha.gov/coronavirus for updates.
1. The case is a confirmed case of COVID-19, as defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC);(2)
2. The case is work-related, as defined by 29 CFR § 1904.5;(3) and
3. The case involves one or more of the general recording criteria set forth in 29 CFR § 1904.7 (4)
Confirmed cases of COVID-19 have now been found in nearly all parts of the country, and outbreaks among workers in industries other than healthcare, emergency response, or correctional institutions have been identified. As transmission and prevention of infection have become better understood, both the government and the private sector have taken rapid and evolving steps to slow the virus’s spread, protect employees, and adapt to new ways of doing business. As the virus’s spread now slows in certain areas of the country, states are taking steps to reopen their economies and workers are returning to their workplaces. All these facts—incidence, adaptation, and the return of the workforce—indicate that employers should be taking action to determine whether employee COVID-19 illnesses are work-related and thus recordable. Given the nature of the disease and ubiquity of community spread, however, in many instances it remains difficult to determine whether a COVID-19 illness is work-related, especially when an employee has experienced potential exposure both in and out of the workplace.
In light of these considerations, OSHA is exercising its enforcement discretion in order to provide certainty to employers and workers. Accordingly, until further notice, OSHA will enforce the recordkeeping requirements of 29 CFR Part 1904 for employee COVID-19 illnesses for all employers according to the guidelines below. Recording a COVID-19 illness does not, of itself, mean that the employer has violated any OSHA standard. And pursuant to existing regulations, employees with 10 or fewer employees and certain employers in low hazard industries have no recording obligations; they need only report work-related COVID-19 illnesses that result in a fatality or an employee’s in-patient hospitalization, amputation, or loss of an eye.(5)
Because of the difficulty with determining work-relatedness, OSHA is exercising enforcement discretion to assess employers’ efforts in making work-related determinations.
CSHOs will generally refer to CPL 02-00-135, Recordkeeping Policies and Procedures Manual (Dec. 30, 2004),6 and CPL 02-00-163, Field Operations Manual (Sept. 13, 2019),7 Chapters 3 and 6, as applicable. The following additional specific enforcement guidance is provided for CSHOs:
1 Memorandum from Lee Anne Jillings & Patrick J. Kapust, OSHA, “Enforcement Guidance for Recording Cases of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19),” Apr. 10, 2020, www.osha.gov/memos/2020-04-10/enforcement-guidance-recording-cases-coronavirus-disease-2019-COVID-19.
2 A confirmed case of COVID-19 means an individual with at least one respiratory specimen that tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. See www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/php/reporting-pui.html.
3 Under 29 CFR § 1904.5, an employer must consider an injury or illness to be work-related if an event or exposure in the work environment (as defined by 29 CFR § 1904.5(b)(1)) either caused or contributed to the resulting condition or significantly aggravated a pre-existing injury or illness. Work-relatedness is presumed for injuries and illnesses resulting from events or exposures occurring in the work environment, unless an exception in 29 CFR § 1904.5(b)(2) specifically applies. See www.osha.gov/laws-regs/regulations/standardnumber/1904/1904.5. As discussed below, OSHA is exercising enforcement discretion regarding work-relatedness in the context of employee COVID-19 illness.
4 Under 29 CFR § 1904.7, an employer must consider an injury or illness to meet the general recording criteria, and therefore to be recordable, if it results in any of the following: death, days away from work, restricted work or transfer to another job, medical treatment beyond first aid, or loss of consciousness. An employer must also consider a case to meet the general recording criteria if it involves a significant injury or illness diagnosed by a physician or other licensed health care professional, even if it does not result in death, days away from work, restricted work or job transfer, medical treatment beyond first aid, or loss of consciousness. See www.osha.gov/laws-regs/regulations/standardnumber/1904/1904.7.
5 See 29 CFR §§ 1904.1(a)(1), 1904.2.
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