President Joe Biden’s January 21, 2021, Executive Order on Protecting Worker Health and Safety directed OSHA to determine whether any emergency federal standards on COVID-19 workplace health and safety are necessary and, if so, to issue them by March 15, 2021. That date has come and gone, yet no determination has been announced and no standards have been issued. 

It has been reported that OSHA has prepared a COVID-19 emergency standard that is currently under review. Nevertheless, OSHA’s statement on this issue in its March 12, 2021, Updated Interim Enforcement Response Plan for Coronavirus Disease 2019 is vague.

What is clear is that (1) OSHA is now focusing on COVID-19 safety enforcement and (2) OSHA has issued detailed guidance for employers that it may enforce under its general duties clause.

Duane Morris attorneys will continue to monitor the situation and publish further Alerts on any OSHA developments in issuing COVID-19 emergency standard(s).

We also are postponing and rescheduling the April 1, 2021, Duane Morris Institute webinar on OSHA’s emergency COVID-19 standard(s).

About Duane Morris

Duane Morris has created a COVID-19 Strategy Team to help employers plan, respond to and address this fast-moving situation. Contact your Duane Morris attorney for more information. Prior Alerts on the topic are available on the team’s webpage.

For More Information

If you have any questions about this Alert, please contact Jonathan A. Segal, Jonathan D. Wetchler, any of the attorneys in our Employment, Labor, Benefits and Immigration Practice Group or the attorney in the firm with whom you are regularly in contact.

Disclaimer: This Alert has been prepared and published for informational purposes only and is not offered, nor should be construed, as legal advice. For more information, please see the firm's full disclaimer.