APRIL 14 COVID-19 UPDATE

OSHA
The Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) released an important enforcement memo regarding temporary recording keeping during the COVID-19 pandemic.  The memo will hopefully protect businesses from some unfounded liability claims. Under previously existing rules COVID-19 is a “recordable illness, and employers are responsible for recording cases using certain criteria.  With this guidance OSHA states that employers “…may have difficulty making determinations about whether workers who contracted COVID-19 did so due to exposures at work.”  

OSHA further states that they will not enforce the recording rule except if there is “objective evidence” of infection such as amongst “workers who work closely together without an alternative explanation” or if the “evidence was reasonably available to the employer.” The alleged aim of the temporary guidance is for businesses to “focus their response on implementing good hygiene practices…rather than on making difficult work-relatedness decisions…”.  

A link to the OSHA memo is:

https://www.osha.gov/memos/2020-04-10/enforcement-guidance-recording-cases-coronavirus-disease-2019-covid-19

 
Contact ARA Staff with any questions or concerns.  You can reach us at 571-208-0428 extension 2 or 3 or Sandy directly at 505-228-0401.

In order to comply with the Virginia Governor's Directive to close all non-essential businesses, the ARA Office is closed and the staff continues to work remote from home.

Joining ARA today to continue to strengthen the voice of the industry!
​We need your help now more than ever! Click HERE to join ARA!

 For updates, go to ARA's COVID-19
 For resources, go to ARA's COVID-19 Resource Page
 For resource links, go to ARA's COVID-19 Links
 
For Essential Business and Stay at Home Orders,
go to ARA's State & Provincial COVID-19 Orders