The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration issued two revised enforcement policies May 19 related to COVID-19.
OSHA said the policies are to ensure employers protect their employees as states begin to re-open their economies.
Before, the agency did not enforce its record-keeping requirements to require employers to make work-related determinations for COVID-19 cases, unless:
- The case is a confirmed COVID-19 case.
- Objective evidence shows the case may be related to the person's job duties.
- The employer had reasonable access to the evidence.
OSHA said employers of healthcare workers, emergency response organizations and correctional institutions must continue to make work-related determinations based on these requirements.
Under the revised policy, the agency will enforce record-keeping requirements for employee COVID-19 cases for all employers, with the exception of employers with 10 or fewer employees as well as certain employers in low hazard industries.
"Given the nature of the disease and community spread … in many instances it remains difficult to determine whether a coronavirus illness is work-related, especially when an employee has experienced potential exposure both in and out of the workplace," OSHA said. "OSHA's guidance emphasizes that employers must make reasonable efforts, based on the evidence available to the employer, to ascertain whether a particular case of coronavirus is work-related."
OSHA said it will also conduct more in-person inspections, compared to before, when remote inspections were conducted when there were not sufficient resources to allow for on-site inspections.
The agency said the new enforcement guidance, effective May 26, "reflects changing circumstances in which many noncritical businesses have begun to re-open in areas of lower community spread."
"The risk of transmission is lower in specific categories of workplaces, and personal protective equipment potentially needed for inspections is more widely available," the agency added.
More COVID-19 information from OSHA is available here.