OSHA Extends COVID-19 Workplace Enforcement

OSHA has extended a program designed to help protect high-risk workers against COVID-19, and increase enforcement. 

Officials said the revised COVID-19 National Emphasis Program will continue until further notice. 

In a release, the agency said investigators will continue to focus enforcement efforts on companies that put the largest number of workers at risk of contracting the virus. 

The program also focuses on employers who retaliate against workers who make complaints about unsafe working conditions.

The announcement comes as the CDC reports increasing COVID-19 hospitalization rates in recent months, and forecasts the increase will continue. 

Additional Efforts

Inspection goals will also increase temporarily from a goal of 5% of inspections to 10%. 

Between March 2021 and 2022, inspections under the program accounted for 7% of all federal OSHA inspections. 

Since the start of the pandemic in February 2020, OSHA issued 1,200 coronavirus-related citations.

OSHA encourages state plans to continue implementing a program for coronavirus-related inspections that are at least as effective as the federal National Emphasis Program.

Officials with OSHA said they are continuing to draft permanent standards specific to healthcare worker protections against the coronavirus and future infectious diseases.

---

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