OSHA’s Top COVID-19 Workplace Violations

OSHA has issued guidance to help employers understand the violations most often cited during coronavirus-related inspections.

OSHA based its guidance on data from citations its inspectors issued.

Many of these inspections were the result of complaints, referrals, and fatalities in industries including hospitals, healthcare, nursing homes, long-term care facilities, and meat and poultry processing plants, the agency said.

The guidance and an accompanying one-page information sheet provide available resources that address the most-often cited standards.

This includes respiratory protection, recording and reporting occupational injuries and illnesses, personal protective equipment, and OSHA’s general duty clause.

Top Citations

Here are some of the requirements employers are most often cited for failing to meet:

• Providing a medical evaluation before a worker is fit-tested or uses a respirator
• Establishing, implementing, and updating a written respiratory protection program with required worksite-specific procedures
• Training workers to safely use respirators and/or other PPE in the workplace, and retraining them about changes in the workplace that might make previous training obsolete
• Storing respirators and other PPE properly in a way to protect them from damage, contamination, and, where applicable, deformation of the facepiece and exhalation valve
• Keeping required records of work-related fatalities, injuries, and illness

Consultation Program

OSHA said it provides this guidance to help employers protect workers and increase compliance with OSHA requirements.

OSHA’s on-site consultation program offers no-cost and confidential occupational safety and health services to small- and mid-sized businesses to identify workplace hazards, provides advice for compliance with OSHA standards, and assists in establishing and improving safety and health programs.

On-site consultation services are separate from enforcement and do not result in penalties or citations.  

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For more information, contact CBIA’s Philip Montgomery (860.244.1982).