Many of the legal experts that have been providing businesses with advice throughout the COVID health crisis have recommended the creation of systems and processes to track efforts to keep employees and customers safe.
Now, under newly revised policies issued by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), its Compliance Safety and Health Officers will begin stepping up in-person inspections of all types of workplaces and enforcement of the COVID-related record-keeping mandates for businesses, particularly those that employ more than 10 people, as detailed in 29 CFR 1904. “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,” wrote Lee Anne Jillings and Patrick J. Kapust, acting directors, in an OSHA Memorandum on May 19, 2020.
The mandates they will now be enforcing require employers to conduct a “reasonable and good faith inquiry” into cases of coronavirus among their employees to determine whether they may be work-related, and if they are determined to be work-related, to record those cases using OSHA Form 300.
This is one of several regulations related to COVID-19 that U.S. marine dealers should be aware of and ensure they are in compliance with. MRAA addressed some of these legal and regulatory considerations as part of its April 15th Ask the Expert Webinar, titled Legal Insights to COVID-19 Solutions.
Given the changes that have taken place since then, MRAA will once again feature expertise from MRAA partner Bellavia Blatt PC to help dealers navigate these legal and regulatory issues in an upcoming June webinar, date and time to be announced shortly.