OSHA Relaxes Recording Requirements

By Kamer Zucker Abbott

April 13, 2020

On April 10, 2020, the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) announced that it will not require many employers to record cases of COVID-19 as occupational illnesses so that employers can “focus their response efforts on implementing good hygiene practices in their workplaces, and otherwise mitigating COVID-19’s effects, rather than on making difficult work-relatedness decisions in circumstances where there is community transmission.” This temporary measure takes effect immediately. It does not apply to employers in the healthcare industry, emergency response organizations (emergency medical, firefighting and law enforcement), or correctional institutions.

Because many employers "may have difficulty making determinations about whether workers who contracted COVID-19 did so due to exposures at work," OSHA will not enforce its record-keeping standard, 29 C.F.R. § 1904, to require employers to make work-relatedness determinations, except where:

“(1) There is objective evidence that a COVID-19 case may be work-related. This could include, for example, a number of cases developing among workers who work closely together without an alternative explanation; and

(2) The evidence was reasonably available to the employer. For purposes of this memorandum, examples of reasonably available evidence include information given to the employer by employees, as well as information that an employer learns regarding its employees’ health and safety in the ordinary course of managing its business and employees.”

OSHA further reminds employers to continue regularly checking its webpage for COVID-19 guidance and information.