Written by Matthew Horn of Smith Amundsen.
Previously, OSHA issued guidance indicating that most employers only had to record or report confirmed COVID-19 cases when provided with objective evidence that an employee contracted COVID-19 at work. In practice, this put the burden on employees to submit evidence to employers establishing that their COVID-19 cases were contracted at work.
You shouldn’t wait until an employee is exposed to or tests positive for the COVID-19 virus. Rather, you should create a facilities plan that will help keep your employees as safe as possible.
Here are some things to consider as you develop your plan:
Are your employees wearing N95 filtering facepiece respirators to protect themselves? Please Note: the information in this blog pertains only to N95 filtering facepiece respirators. Other respirator types may follow different requirements.
Yesterday we wrote about companies being essential businesses and staying open during the "Stay at Home" order. If you do remain open, here are some recommendations to help keep employees safe while they are at work:
Workers play a strong role in keeping themselves safe due to their willingness to take personal responsibility for decisions that will keep them safe. Safety training and policies are commonly used tools to help encourage risk-free behaviors through building safety knowledge. However, these practices alone will not be enough to create a complete safety culture.
How long has it been since you have refreshed your team on travel safety?
Sometimes we are so focused on output and daily management that safety does not get the attention it deserves. Our employees are our most valuable asset. We are also busy. When time is taken to improve our safety and health programs and train the team, it is often focused on regulatory and highly hazardous activities.
When we focus our time and efforts on making safety corrections we often focus on machine guarding, lockout/tagout and some of the other programs that require written programs, and regular documented training. However, a good deal of injuries and costs are caused by injuries on walking surfaces or due to ergonomic issues in our work.
Written by Mary Hallock, IMEC Technical Specialist and OSHA Authorized Trainer
Falls from heights and from the same level happen at workplaces more often than you might think. Injuries from falls are a leading cause of serious workplace injuries and deaths. OSHA has recently updated their walking-working surfaces and fall protection standards for general industry. Make today the day to consider training so your employees are aware of these workplace hazards.
OSHA has issued a call for vigilance as our workplace fatalities have increased 28% since 2013.
Thirty-six Illinois workers have died on the job since January 1, 2016. No one wants to place that phone call to a coworker’s loved one.
OSHA is asking all Illinois employers to review their safety and health programs and procedures carefully to avoid more workplace fatalities. Check out the U.S. Department of Labor’s October 5th News Release.
