Sweeping changes include Executive Orders on Safety for Workers
It has been a whirlwind beginning with a new administration stretching its legs and signing executive orders and changing out federal agency heads. Notably, President Joe Biden has selected the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's Charlotte Burrows to lead the agency, Former EEOC Chair Jenny Yang is the new director of the OFCCP, and NLRB's Lauren McFerran was named chair of the NLRB board.
One of the Executive Orders that I want to discuss this week is the Executive Order on Protecting Worker Health and Safety that was signed on January 21, 2021. The purpose of the E.O. policy is stated as, “The Federal Government must take swift action to reduce the risk that workers may contract COVID-19 in the workplace.” In order to accomplish this, the E.O. states it will require, “issuing science-based guidance to help keep workers safe from COVID-19 exposure, including with respect to mask-wearing; partnering with State and local governments to better protect public employees; enforcing worker health and safety requirements; and pushing for additional resources to help employers protect employees.”
2 Week Deadline - So the E.O. gives The Secretary of Labor under the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) two weeks from this order to issue revised guidance to employers on workplace safety during the COVID-19 pandemic. I have summarized the considerations for this new guidance in the list below:
Emergency Temporary Standards - Consider whether emergency temporary standards on COVID-19 including with respect to masks in the workplace are necessary and if such standards are determined necessary issue them by March 15, 2021;
Enforcement Efforts Under Review - Review the enforcement efforts of OSHA as it relates to COVID-19 and identify the short, medium, and long term changes that could be made to better protect workers and provide equity in enforcement;
Launch National Enforcement Effort - This appears to be wanting to focus OSHA efforts on more enforcement and especially where there are "the largest number of workers at serious risk” or “contrary to anti-retaliation” principles;
Multilingual Outreach Campaign - Develop public affairs and public engagement campaign in various languages to coordinate with labor unions, community organizations, and industries to inform workers and the representatives of their rights; and
Protecting “Other Categories of Workers” - The discussion around this does not identify specifically other workers only that if individuals are not being protected and covered then the Secretary of Labor is supposed to have discussions with the State and local governments on how to get them protected.
So we have a rough outline of what this new OSHA guidance will contain but still quite a few vague statements that really are giving the Secretary of Labor some broad strokes to develop what is deemed necessary to fill in the gaps where OSHA has potentially not been protecting certain workers. This also indicates a more national federal approach toward worker safety beyond what maybe has occurred since the start of this Pandemic. This is one to watch moving forward.
To check out the language of the Executive Order for yourself, click here.