To Commemorate Workers Memorial Day, AFGE Seeks Permanent COVID-19 Standard for Employers to Keep Workers Safe
April 25, 2022
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The Insider
The past two years have been tough for working people as we try to protect ourselves and our families from a deadly virus while also trying to do our jobs and make a living. This is especially true for health care workers, those whose jobs could never go remote, and those who interact with the public to keep government services running for the American people.
Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, tens of thousands of government workers have contracted the virus and hundreds have died. To honor their sacrifice and commemorate Workers Memorial Day on April 28, AFGE is calling on the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to issue a permanent standard for COVID-19 related safety measures in the workplace.
OSHA issued a healthcare emergency temporary standard (ETS) in June last year to set workplace safety measures for employers to follow in order to protect workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. An ETS is good for six months, and OSHA let it expire in December.
OSHA is supposed to move to a permanent standard, and a coalition of labor unions including AFGE has been pushing OSHA for a permanent standard.
OSHA has been building on the ETS as the basis for the permanent one. AFGE submitted our comments on the ETS in August 2021. OSHA has recently re-opened a public comment period with public hearings scheduled April 27, 28, 29 and May 2.
AFGE has submitted our comments, and our representative MJ Burke with the AFGE National Veterans Affairs Council will testify at a hearing on April 29. The public comment period and hearing are part of the rulemaking process for the permanent standard.
AFGE fully supports a permanent OSHA COVID-19 standard. We’re urging OSHA to:
- Clearly state that SARS-CoV-2 is an airborne virus.
- Strengthen the requirement for employee and employee representative participation. Employees and their representatives have first-hand knowledge and experience that should inform employer COVID-19 workplace safety plans.
- Keep the requirement for a COVID-19 log that tracks COVID cases regardless of work-relatedness and the right of employees and their representatives to see the log. We oppose OSHA’s proposal to require employers to keep the log for only one year after the last entry. The information in the logs is useful in the long term for employers and for researchers. Employers should be using the information to identify patterns and look for ways to further reduce exposure.
- We urge OSHA to require notification of exposure to employees regardless of their vaccination status.
- We oppose allowing employers an option to follow the CDC guidelines instead of the OSHA standard. The CDC guidelines are recommendations for the public and not necessarily specific to workplaces.
To watch the hearings, click here.
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