Attention Business Owners , OSHA Has New Guidelines for COVID

 

Although the pace of vaccinations is increasing, COVID is still going to be an issue for business owners. The new Biden administration directed OSHA to review their coronavirus safety standards and issue some updated guidelines. I have summarized them below. "OSHA is updating its guidance to reduce the risk of transmission of the coronavirus an improve worker protections..."  per OSHA's assistant secretary, Jim Frederick.

 All business owners should go to www.osha.gov for more detail. Here is a summary list of the updated guidelines, with my risk management comments in red.

1) Conduct a hazard assessment - There are a lot of risk identification protocols online for business owners

2) Identify control measures to limit the spread of the virus- This is going to be important as many employees will remain unvaccinated. Again there are many virus control and safety steps for business owners online and in the OSHA web portal.

3) Adopt policies for employee absences that don't punish workers as a way to encourage potentially infected workers to remain home-  Although a burden on business, developing stay at home protocols will ultimately pay off.

4) Ensure COVID policies and procedures are communicated in English and non- English languages-  Most businesses today have workers who are comfortable in languages other than English.

5) Implement protections from retaliation for workers who raise coronovirus-related concerns- This becomes critical as vaccinated employees will be working along side of unvaccinated employees.

Every employer will need to give COVID as much attention going forward as they are now. The virus is here to stay and will continue to affect the workplace.

Until next time be careful out there and know your risks.

Posted by: G. Kevin Nemith CIC. CRM  President, Agency Leader for CNC Insurance & Pfister Insurance. Hilb Mid-Atlantic Group.

knemith@hilbgroup.com

Top 20 insurance brokers and risk managers in the USA. 

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