By Ilana Morady, Patrick D. Joyce, and Coby Turner
Seyfarth Synopsis: On April 21, 2022, the Cal/OSHA Standards Board (“Board”) voted 6-1 to approve a third adoption of the Cal/OSHA COVID-19 emergency temporary standard (“ETS”). The revised ETS will likely go into effect the first week of May and will expire on December 31, 2022.
Background
As
Continue Reading Third Iteration of the Cal/OSHA ETS Approved
By Robert S. Whitman and Amanda Williams
Seyfarth Synopsis: The New York Commissioner of Health has declined to extend the designation of COVID-19 as a highly contagious communicable disease under the NY HERO Act. Employers are no longer required to activate their safety plans.
As previously reported (most recently here), the New York State Commissioner of Health, on September
Continue Reading NY HERO Act Update: COVID-19 Designation Expires
By Daniel I.Small and Robert S.Whitman
Seyfarth Synopsis: This week, Governor Hochul announced that she will lift the mask-or-vaccinate mandate for nearly all public places of business on February 10, 2022. The New York Department of Labor has now revised its model safety plan under the HERO Act to eliminate the mask requirement in most settings. Other HERO Act
Continue Reading UPDATED: New York Lifts Mask-or-Vax Mandate and HERO Act Masking Requirement
By A. Scott Hecker, Brent I. Clark, James L. Curtis, Benjamin D. Briggs, Mark A. Lies, Adam R. Young, Patrick D. Joyce, Daniel R. Birnbaum, and Craig B. Simonsen
Seyfarth Synopsis: OSHA has withdrawn its private employer COVID-19 Vaccination and Testing ETS, effective Tuesday, January 25, 2022.
On Tuesday, January 25,
Continue Reading OSHA Acknowledges Reality; Withdraws COVID-19 Vaccination and Testing ETS
By Adam R. Young, Patrick D. Joyce, A. Scott Hecker, Brent I. Clark, James L. Curtis, Benjamin D. Briggs, Mark A. Lies, Bradley D. Doucette, and Ilana R. Morady
Seyfarth Synopsis: On January 13, 2022, the Supreme Court stayed enforcement of OSHA’s COVID-19 Vaccination and Testing Emergency Temporary Standard (“ETS”), pending
Continue Reading OSHA ETS Stayed Again — Supreme Court Characterizes ETS as Public Health Measure Outside of OSHA’s Jurisdiction
By Benjamin J.Conley and Adam R. Young
Seyfarth Synopsis: The OSHA COVID-19 Vaccination and Testing Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS) will require unvaccinated employees to submit weekly COVID-19 testing results by February 9, 2022. New guidance from the Biden Administration could require employer health plans to reimburse the cost of at-home COVID testing in certain circumstances, creating confusion for employers on
Continue Reading Latest Biden Administration Order Requires Some Employers to Pay for Cost of COVID Testing
By James L. Curtis, Adam R. Young, Scott Hecker, and Craig B. Simonsen
Seyfarth Synopsis: Federal OSHA is warning Arizona, South Carolina, and Utah that they risk a federal takeover of their worker safety programs unless they adopt a federal emergency temporary standard (ETS) protecting health-care workers from COVID -19.
OSHA published its
Continue Reading Three OSHA State Plans Under Fire for Failure to Adopt COVID Emergency Temporary Standard for Health Care
By Brent I. Clark, James L. Curtis, Benjamin D. Briggs, Adam R. Young, Patrick D. Joyce, Ilana R. Morady, Daniel R. Birnbaum, Scott Hecker, and Craig B. Simonsen
Seyfarth Synopsis: On October 12, 2021, OSHA submitted to the White House’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (“OIRA”) an emergency temporary standard
Continue Reading OSHA Sends COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate Emergency Temporary Standard to White House for Final Review
By Benjamin D. Briggs, Adam R. Young, and Craig B. Simonsen
Seyfarth Synopsis: A new report from the National Safety Council (NSC), State of the Response: Employer Actions to Address the Pandemic, provides an overview of how employers have been responding to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The NSC survey sought to understand which COVID-19-related safety practices were
Continue Reading NSC Publishes Benchmarking Report on COVID-19 Safety Practices Implemented in Business and Industry
By James L. Curtis, Mark A. Lies, II, Adam R. Young, Daniel R. Birnbaum, Patrick D. Joyce, and Craig B. Simonsen
Seyfarth Synopsis: The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has adopted a Revised Enforcement Guidance for Recording Cases of COVID-19. Under the OSHA regulations and the revised guidance, most cases of COVID-19 will
Continue Reading OSHA Issues Revised Enforcement Guidance for Recordkeeping of COVID-19 Cases