OSHA launches COVID-19 National Emphasis Program, prioritizes onsite inspections constructiondive.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from constructiondive.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
OSHA launched and published a National Emphasis Program Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) to target establishments that have workers with increased potential exposure, and that put the largest number of workers at serious risk.
The agency notes that the NEP will use inspection targeting, outreach, and compliance assistance to address this hazard. In addition, the COVID-19 NEP includes an added focus to ensure that workers are protected from retaliation.
OSHA notes it will be accomplishing this by preventing retaliation where possible, distributing anti-retaliation information during inspections and outreach opportunities, as well as referring allegations of retaliation to the Whistleblower Protection Program.
OSHA has also issued an Updated Interim Enforcement Response Plan for Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) to prioritize the use of on-site workplace inspections where practical, or a combination of on-site and remote methods.
Monday, February 1, 2021
On the second full day after President Biden took office, his administration released a broad-based, ambitious, 200-page National Strategy For The COVID-19 Response and Pandemic Preparedness (the “Plan”). The Plan’s stated objective is to “provide a roadmap to guide America out of the worst public health crisis in a century,” and sets forth seven goals to achieve that objective. The Plan emphasizes that the federal government’s actions will be founded in science and data and will be coordinated through a new COVID-19 Response Office.
Important for employers, however, is that the Plan’s success “requires sustained, coordinated, and complementary efforts of … groups across the country, including … health care providers; businesses; manufacturers critical to the supply chain, communities of color, and unions.”