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.
Continue Reading Racing toward a standard: How Virginia, Oregon, and Washington are moving to regulate workplace hazards of COVID-19