OSHA Guidance on Returning to Work

OSHA has a guide available for employers or employees to assist them in assessing the workplace and instituting the appropriate controls to make the return safe. It “focuses on the need for employers to develop and implement strategies for basic hygiene (e.g., hand hygiene, cleaning and disinfection), social distancing, identification and isolation of sick employees, workplace controls and flexibilities, and employee training.”

Many areas have done a poor job of opening up, either reducing controls before evidence indicated or failing to continue with controls like physical distancing or the wearing of face masks which should continue until a vaccine is available and widely administered. Remember, under OSHA’s recordkeeping requirements, COVID-19 is a recordable illness, and employers are responsible for recording cases of COVID-19 that have evidence of being contracted at work.

Download Guidance Document 4045-06 2020 here. (pdf)

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