(NAHB) — The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) recently revised its guidance on whether employers are required to record cases of COVID-19 in their Form 300 Logs for reporting occupational injuries and illnesses. OSHA’s memo is in direct response to significant concerns raised by NAHB and construction industry partners in a letter to OSHA regarding its position on the recordability of COVID-19 cases.
OSHA states that in areas where there is ongoing community transmission, employers may have difficulty making determinations about whether workers who contracted COVID-19 did so due to exposures at work. Until further notice, OSHA will not enforce its recordkeeping requirements to require these employers to make work-relatedness determinations for COVID-19 cases, except where: (1) There is objective evidence that a COVID-19 case may be work-related; and (2) The evidence was reasonably available to the employer.
OSHA recordkeeping requirements required covered employers record certain work-related injuries and illnesses on their OSHA 300 log.
However, employers of workers in the healthcare industry, emergency response organizations and correctional institutions must continue to make work-relatedness determinations.
OSHA’s guidance takes effect immediately and remains in effect until further notice, which is intended to be time-limited to the current national public health emergency.
Access the latest NAHB news and business resources to respond to this challenge in the Coronavirus Preparedness and Response section on nahb.org.
Tagged with Covid-19, NAHB, osha