The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) announced this week a new guidance for enforcing its COVID-19 recordkeeping requirements, soon requiring employers, including metalcasters, to make an increased effort to determine whether they need to record and report coronavirus cases in the workplace. This new standard, which will become effective on May 26, reverses course from an agency policy released a few weeks ago that had given OSHA enforcement discretion when it came to the recordkeeping obligations.
Under OSHA's revised recordkeeping requirements, coronavirus is a recordable illness, and employers are responsible for recording cases of the coronavirus, if the case:
- Is confirmed as a coronavirus illness;
- Is work-related as defined by 29 CFR 1904.5; and
- Involves one or more of the general recording criteria in 29 CFR 1904.7, such as medical treatment beyond first aid or days away from work.
In addition, OSHA announced it is increasing in-person inspections at all types of workplaces. The new enforcement guidance reflects changing circumstances in which many non-critical businesses have begun to reopen 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. OSHA staff will continue to prioritize COVID-19 inspections and will utilize all enforcement tools as OSHA has historically done.