Recording and Reporting Requirements for COVID-19 Cases Frequently Asked Questions

Table of Content

• Report a Workplace Accident:
• OSHA’s Virus Protection Program Could Put Home Health Agencies Under the Microscope
• Construction Now Watched More Closely
• Strategies to Reduce Noise in the Workplace
• Increase in Work Fatalities in 2021 is Call to Action Says Labor Secretary
• What Employers Can Do To Improve Employees' Health
• Home Offices vs. Home-based Worksites

The correspondent claimed that the employee did not work a full 8-hour shift while working from home, but otherwise was able to perform all of her routine job functions from home. There is a violation of a safety or health standard that threatens physical harm. The difference between the two is that one consists of office work and the other involves using an area of the home for employees to perform the work of the employer. This is important because the difference determines whether OSHA will perform an inspection. OSHA's pronouncement that the OSH Act applied to home-based workers was not particularly surprising in light of the breadth of the OSH Act itself and the fact that OSHA had issued similar advisory opinion letters in the past.

Death, provided that the preexisting injury or illness would likely not have resulted in death but for the occupational event or exposure. Governor Newsom’s Executive Order N addresses eligibility for workers compensation benefits. The Order does not alter employers’ reporting and recording obligations under Cal/OSHA regulations. Reportable illnesses are not limited to instances when the employee becomes ill at work. Serious illnesses include illnesses contracted “in connection with any employment,” which can include those contracted in connection with work but with symptoms that begin to appear outside of work.

Report a Workplace Accident:

Download OSHA's recommended practices for safety and health programs. Properly store personal protective equipment to prevent damage. Ensure workers know what to do in case of a heat illness emergency. Make a safety zone around your business to protect workers from wildfires.

Because the employee was still in the process of traveling to his ultimate destination, the continuation of the trip from the temporary residence to the meeting location is considered to be travel status. An accident occurring while in travel status is work-related. If an employee works from home as an accommodation while recovering from an occupational injury or illness, the employer would either count those days working from home as restricted or days away from work. The former applies if the employee already sometimes worked from home as part of the normal work routine, while the latter would apply if they did not. Having established that definition, OSHA then clarifies that employers must keep a separate OSHA 300 log for each establishment that is expected to be in operation for one year or longer. So if a contractor has its employees working at a host site for one year or longer, that site would be an “establishment” and the company would need to maintain an OSHA 300 log.

OSHA’s Virus Protection Program Could Put Home Health Agencies Under the Microscope

It is illegal for an employer to fire, demote or transfer a worker for complaining to OSHA. Establish a plan for contacting medical personnel in the event of an emergency. Determine if the COVID-19 Healthcare ETS applies to your workplace. On day 1, work no more than 20% of a shift at full intensity in the heat.

And I bet just about every contractor reading this can guess why, because you’ve already heard it a million times. However, business groups said that the new OSHA interpretation places a greater burden on employers that could have a crippling effect on at-home work arrangements. The letter gives examples of the types of problems companies could be liable for, ranging from ergonomics injuries, such as carpal tunnel syndrome, from improperly configured computer work stations, or fires caused by overloading home electrical circuits with office equipment.

Construction Now Watched More Closely

An accident occurring during the normal commute is not considered work-related. OSHA General Industry Outreach Training provides safety and health training for workers, supervisors, and managers. "It will be interesting to see what this means for the insurance folks. Now underwriters would have to ask employers who permit employees to work at home if they provide protections for the employees' health and safety," said Perry. OSHA has policies for both home offices and home-based worksites.

Employers do not need to keep separate logs for “short-term” establishments that operate for less than one year, and can track recordable injuries and illnesses for those establishments on a single form compiling all short-term establishment records. Of course, determining recordability for injuries and illnesses is only one of challenges employers face in interpreting how the Recordkeeping Standard applies to WFH or remote work situations. Let’s look at some of the other common issues, visiting relevant OSHA guidance along the way. Loss of consciousness, provided that the pre-existing injury or illness would likely not have resulted in loss of consciousness but for the occupational event or exposure. Death, provided that the pre-existing injury or illness would likely not have resulted in death but for the occupational event or exposure. OSHA's Guidelines for Preventing Workplace Violence for Health Care & Social Service Workers provide the agency's recommendations for reducing the risk of workplace violence to workers in healthcare, including home healthcare, and in social services.

Strategies to Reduce Noise in the Workplace

S. Department of Labor looks forward to opening up such a dialogue that would allow both employers and employees to determine the best way to ensure the safety and health of workers. Employers may not rely on electronic distribution to provide access to their 300A summary for employees working at remote worksites. They must post hard copies of the 300As at each of the company’s establishments in a conspicuous place where notices to employees are normally posted in the workplace.

VelocityEHS recently held a three-part webinar series focusing on Risk Management 101, designed to introduce EHS professionals to the concepts, tools, and best practices for establishing and maintaining an effective risk management program, across several industries. An “establishment” is a single physical business location where work is conducted. A big takeaway here is that there’s no one-size-fits-all answer to this question. It’s going to vary situation to situation based on the existing working arrangements, and employers will have to use their best discretion to make the determination based on the details relevant to them.

Cal/OSHA cited 18,896 hazards and created safer working conditions for at least 8.4 million employees. OSHA Administrator Charles N. Jeffress issued the advisory in mid-November 1999 in response to a letter from an employer in Texas requesting information on policies concerning employees working at home. If an employee makes a specific request, OSHA may informally let employers know of complaints about home office conditions, but will not follow-up with the employer or employee. They will not hold employers liable for employees’ home offices, and does not expect employers to inspect the home offices of their employees. They will not conduct inspections of employees’ home offices. The company set up a home workspace for her and forwarded her business phone to her personal phone number to facilitate her working from home while she recovered from surgery.

An OSHA advisory concludes that companies who let employees work at home are responsible for health and safety violations at home. A lot of people feel strain during the holidays – whether it’s mental, emotional or physical; from traveling to cooking or clearing away snow—and it can be very distracting while you’re trying to enjoy time with your family and friends. So, to ease any physical discomfort you may feel over the holidays, we’ve found a few products that can help in small ways. WFH injuries are only work-related and potentially recordable, if the injury is directly related to work activities being performed. Therefore, injuries that occur in the home while the employee is not doing work would not be recordable. But of course, an increasingly common challenge during the era of remote work is determining whether our worksites meet OSHA’s definition of “establishments,” and how to manage their records if they do.

What Employers Can Do To Improve Employees' Health

Pro Tool Reviews is a successful online publication that has been providing tool reviews and industry news since 2008. In today’s world of Internet news and online content, we found that more and more professionals researched a large majority of their major power tool purchases online. Walk onto your job site, unannounced to your crew, with those standards fresh in your mind. If they stepped onto the site right now, would they find any violations?

Job descriptions provide detailed information of what an employee should be doing for their job tasks. This is helpful because, if an employee is injured while performing an activity that is not within the job description, it does not have to be documented on the OSHA 300 logs. Employers must record work-related injuries that occur at home on the OSHA 300 logs like they would if employees were on-site and injured. Home offices are where an employee engages in office work activities. This consists of activities that use office equipment like computers and telephones. OSHA's COVID-19 Safety and Health Topics page provides specific information about protecting workers from coronavirus during the ongoing outbreak.

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Medical treatment in a case where no medical treatment was needed for the injury or illness before the workplace event or exposure, or a change in medical treatment was necessitated by the workplace event or exposure. The fact that the employee did not return to the apartment after the meeting does not affect the status of the trip from the apartment to the meeting. A normal commute is generally comprised of two legs, a trip from residence to work and a return trip from work to residence.