Washington Alert: OSHA Releases New COVID-19 Guidelines

New COVID-19 guidelines from The Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) are now available online.

According to OSHA the, Protecting Workers: Guidance on Mitigating and Preventing the Spread of COVID-19 in the Workplace, is, “intended to inform employers and workers in most workplace settings outside of healthcare to help them identify risks of being exposed to and/or contracting COVID-19 at work and to help them determine appropriate control measures to implement.”

The new guidance is broken into four important areas:

• About COVID-19
• What Workers Need To Know about COVID-19 Protections in the Workplace
• The Roles of Employers and Workers in Responding to COVID-19
• Additional Detail on Key Measures for Limiting the Spread

The recommendations are advisory in nature, informational in content, and are intended to assist employers in providing a safe and healthful workplace. The guidance is not a standard or a regulation, and imposes no new legal obligations on employers.