On December 7, 2020, Eric J. Conn (Chair of Conn Maciel Carey’s national OSHA Practice), Susan Wilcox (a CIH and CSP with Safety Resource Associates in Virginia), and special guest Jennifer Rose (VOSH Cooperative Programs Director with the Virginia Department of Labor and Industry) presented a webinar regarding Lessons Learned from the Roll-out of Virginia OSHA’s New COVID-19 Standard.
Earlier this Summer, Virginia became the first state in the nation to promulgate a mandatory
safety regulation designed to reduce COVID-19 infections in the workplace, when Virginia’s Governor Ralph Northam announced the commonwealth’s adoption of an Emergency Temporary Standard (“ETS”). The COVID-19 ETS, which was drafted by Virginia’s Department of Labor and Industry, requires Virginia employers to:
- Assess potential exposures to COVID-19 in the workplace
- Categorize the level of risk exposure from Low to Very High (each with different mitigation requirements)
- Develop and implement a written infection control plan
- Provide employee training on the virus and control measures in the workplace
- Make certain notifications about infected employees to co-workers, to VOSH, and to the VA Dept. of Health
VOSH’s COVID-19 ETS went to effect on July 27th, with major elements of the rule kicking in in August and September. Now, several months into implementation of the COVID-19-specific regulation, we check on the status of the rule, challenges employers have faced complying with it, and enforcement issues. Participants in this webinar will learn:
- Background about VOSH’s COVID-19 Standard
- What to include in your required Infection Control Plan
- Requirements for training, face masks, sanitation, and notifications about infected employees
- Compliance challenges employers have faced
- Enforcement trends and forecasts
We are pleased to share links to a copy of the slides and a recording of the webinar. Also, we have collected all of the participant questions from the webinar and will follow up with a written Q&A document with our answers and useful links throughout. These will also be incorporated into our full compendium of COVID-19 FAQs on Conn Maciel Carey’s COVID-19 Task Force Resource Page.
This was the final regularly scheduled webinar in the 2020 OSHA Webinar Series. Look out for information regarding the 2021 OSHA Webinar Series!
This bonus program will be the 18th webinar event in Conn Maciel Carey’s 2020 OSHA Webinar Series. Click here to view our full schedule, detailed program descriptions for all of the webinars in the 2020 OSHA Webinar Series. If you missed any of our past webinars in our annual OSHA Webinar Series, click here to subscribe to our YouTube channel and view our webinar archive.
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For additional resources on issues related to COVID-19, please visit Conn Maciel Carey’s COVID-19 Resource Page for an extensive index of frequently asked questions with our answers about HR, employment law, and OSHA regulatory developments and guidance, as well as COVID-19 recordkeeping and reporting flow charts. Likewise, subscribe to our Employer Defense Report blog and OSHA Defense Report blog for regular updates about the Labor and Employment Law or OSHA implications of COVID-19 in the workplace. Conn Maciel Carey’s COVID-19 Task Force is monitoring federal, state, and local developments closely and is continuously updating these blogs and the FAQ page with the latest news and resources for employers.