Portable Sanitation Association International

ASSOCIATIONINSIGHT Portable Sanitation Association International News BIWEEKLY EDITION JUNE 10, 2020 Page 2 Continued on page 4 New OSHA Requirements: Work-Related COVID-19 Cases…continued from page 1 All employers who are otherwise subject to OSHA rules, now must determine whether employees who have COVID-19 contracted it at work. Does This Rule Apply to Me? The Occupational Safety and Health Act covers most employers, including those in the portable sanitation industry, if there are 11 or more total employees in the company. Employers with ten or fewer employees generally have no recording obligations unless there is a serious injury or death. Because COVID-19 is so dangerous, you may be required to report even if your company has ten or fewer employees. By law you must comply with OSHA reporting requirements if a work-related coronavirus illness results in a fatality or an employee's in- patient hospitalization, an amputation, or the loss of an eye. Because of this, you should conduct and document an investigation of every employee's COVID-19 case, regardless of your size. That way you will be ready to report if necessary. What Should My Company Expect? Under the new requirements, employers will have to dig for information about the cause of an employee's virus infection while respecting the worker's privacy. If the employee caught the coronavirus at work or while performing work-related activities, the employer must record the illness on the OSHA Form 300. To be in compliance with OSHA's guidance, a COVID-19 case must be recorded on the OSHA 300 log if three criteria are met. These include: 1. A confirmed case of COVID-19. 2. Work-relatedness. 3. Illness resulting in death, days away from work, restricted work or the transfer to another job, medical treatment beyond first aid, or the loss of consciousness. Regardless of where an employee contracted the virus, they will typically meet criteria numbers 1 and 3. You must show you have done due diligence to determine whether they contracted the virus as the result of their work for your company. How Do I Determine Whether a COVID-19 Case Is Work-Related? Because COVID-19 is so pervasive, determining its origin is no small task. In an article published by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), Kathryn Willis, an attorney with Burr & Forman in Mobile, Alabama said, "Employers cannot assume that an employee contracted COVID-19 from going to the grocery store or otherwise being out in public." Instead, employers must make reasonable efforts to determine if the exposure might be work-related.

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