COVID-19 OSHA Safety First for Employees and Customers in Business and at Work

The NYS and Federal workplace compliance requirements for employee and customer safety from COVID-19 are significant, thorough and exhaustive.  Rather than list them here in their entirety, this section from the Federal Department of Labor / OSHA guidance publication Guidance on Preparing Workplaces for COVID-19 neatly summarizes employer obligations to keep both employees and customers safe:

Implement Workplace Controls

Occupational safety and health professionals use a framework called the “hierarchy of controls” to select ways of controlling workplace hazards. In other words, the best way to control a hazard is to systematically remove it from the workplace, rather than relying on workers to reduce their exposure.

During a COVID-19 outbreak, when it may not be possible to eliminate the hazard, the most effective protection measures are (listed from most effective to least effective): engineering controls, administrative controls, safe work practices (a type of administrative control), and PPE. There are advantages and disadvantages to each type of control measure when considering the ease of implementation, effectiveness, and cost. In most cases, a combination of control measures will be necessary to protect workers from exposure to SARS-CoV-2.

In addition to the types of workplace controls discussed below, CDC guidance for businesses provides employers and workers with recommended SARS-CoV-2 infection prevention strategies to implement in workplaces: www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019- ncov/specific-groups/guidance-business-response.html.

The owner of a popular local chain of restaurant / bars temporarily / voluntarily closed all locations this week, because he couldn’t keep his employees and mask- and -physical-distancing-compliant customers safe from those customers who refused to follow safety guidelines such as wearing masks and practicing recommended physical-distancing protocols, which if he allowed it to continue would have resulted in the shutdown of the restaurants anyway:

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New York state, by the way, is leading the country not only in mask-wearing and physical-distancing compliance, but also a continued flattening of the COVID-19 curve – while other less-compliant mask-wearing states have seen their COVID-19 infection numbers jump significantly.

If all customers had adhered to COVID-19 required safety compliance guidelines, these restaurants would still be open, allowing their employees to once again earn wages after the NYS COVID-19 Shelter-in-Place business shutdown and as part of the New York Forward business reopening Phases.  Kudos to the owner for his commitment to keeping everyone safe.

How do you ensure that you can keep employees and customers safe from COVID-19, in business and at work?