COVID-19 OSHA Enforcement and Regulatory Update [Webinar Recording]

On April 20, 2021, Aaron Gelb, Amanda Strainis-Walker and Dan Deacon presented a webinar regarding a “COVID-19 OSHA Enforcement and Regulatory Update ”.

Since the 2020 presidential election was decided, employers have waited, wondered, and watched for signs to see how President Biden’s OSHA would regulate and enforce COVID-19 safety in the workplace. Although OSHA missed the March 15 deadline set by President Biden in his Day One Executive Order to issue its COVID-19 Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS), there have been several important developments providing a window into how OSHA will approach COVID-19 enforcement, most notably the agency’s launch of a COVID-19 National Emphasis Program (“COVID-19 NEP”) to focus the agency’s enforcement efforts on “companies that put the largest number of workers at serious risk of contracting the virus,” as well as prioritizing employers that “retaliate against workers for complaints about unsafe or unhealthy conditions, or for exercising other rights protected by federal law.” OSHA also updated its Interim Enforcement Response Plan, which details how OSHA’s field staff should conduct COVID-related inspections, including whether they will resume in person inspections or continue conducting them remotely as has been the norm for the past year.

During this webinar, participants learned about:

COVID-related OSHA enforcement from the start of the pandemic to now
COVID-related enforcement under Pres. Biden’s OSHA
Status and likely content of a Fed OSHA COVID ETS
State OSH Plan Emergency Rules and enforcement update
Strategy for avoiding and managing COVID-related citations

We are pleased to share this link to a copy of the slides. If you missed the live webinar, click here to subscribe to our YouTube channel and access the recording.

This was the 7th regularly scheduled webinar event in Conn Maciel Carey’s 2021 OSHA Webinar Series. Click here to view our full schedule, detailed program descriptions for all of the webinars in the 2021 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 to gain access to our webinar archive and receive instant notifications as soon as a new recording is posted.

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For 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.