“Until further notice, OSHA will enforce the recordkeeping requirements of 29 CFR 1904 for employee COVID-19 illnesses for all employers.” What does this mean? Recording a COVID-19 illness does not mean that the employer has violated any OSHA standard. It is just reporting. According to existing regulations, employers with 10 or fewer employees and certain employers in low hazard industries have no recording obligations. These businesses only need to report work-related COVID-19 illnesses that result in a fatality or an employee’s in-patient hospitalization, amputation, or loss of an eye.
Recordable Illness
As coronavirus is a recordable illness under OSHA’s recordkeeping requirements, employers are responsible for recording cases if:
- It is confirmed as a coronavirus illness
- It is work-related as defined by OSHA standards
- It involves one or more of OSHA’s general recording criteria, such as medical treatment beyond first aid or six days away from work
OSHA said its new enforcement guidelines were issued as more businesses began reopening in areas of the country reporting lower virus transmission rates.
‘Reasonable’ efforts
OSHA’s latest guidance emphasizes that employers must make reasonable efforts, based on available evidence, to determine whether a particular case of coronavirus is work-related. “If, after the reasonable and good faith inquiry … the employer cannot determine whether it is more likely than not that exposure in the workplace played a causal role with respect to a particular case of COVID-19, the employer does not need to record that COVID-19 illness. In all events, it is important as a matter of worker health and safety, as well as public health, for an employer to examine COVID-19 cases among workers and respond appropriately to protect workers, regardless of whether a case is ultimately determined to be work-related.”
