As the transition in presidential administration draws closer and COVID-19 cases continue to increase in certain parts of the country, it appears increasingly likely that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (“OSHA”) will undertake a rulemaking relating to COVID-19. Additionally, state plan OSHA agencies continue to revise and issue guidance relating to their own rules,
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Racing toward a standard: How Virginia, Oregon, and Washington are moving to regulate workplace hazards of COVID-19
Individual states’ safety agencies have undertaken the development of their own workplace safety rules in response to potential hazards from COVID-19 as the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has declined to promulgate specific standards and instead relied on existing regulations and guidance. Specifically, Virginia recently published a temporary emergency COVID-19 rule, while Oregon has been holding stakeholder meetings to develop its own, similar emergency standard. Washington, meanwhile, has created a trigger for direct enforceability of state-issued restrictions and prohibitions on employer operations by its workplace safety agency.
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