OSHA Updates COVID-19 Guidance High-Risk Workplaces, Including Manufacturing

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) updated its COVID-19-related safety guidance for high-risk workplaces on August 13. High-risk workplaces include manufacturing and industrial metals facilities.

The changes:

• Are updated to reflect the July 27, 2021 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) mask and testing recommendations for fully vaccinated individuals (read more about the CDC’s guidance here);
• Reorganize recommendations for manufacturing, meat and poultry processing, seafood processing, and agricultural processing industries; and
• Added links to guidance with the most up-to-date content.

In its new guidance, OSHA reminds employers “that vaccination is the most effective way to protect against severe illness or death from COVID-19.” As such, OSHA said it “strongly encourages employers to provide paid time off to workers for the time it takes for them to get vaccinated and recover from any side effects.”

In a meeting last week with business leaders, President Joe Biden made the same recommendation. The Wall Street Journal reports on that discussion here.

OSHA also said employers should consider working with local public health authorities to provide vaccinations for unvaccinated workers in the workplace and should consider adopting policies that require workers to get vaccinated or to undergo regular COVID-19 testing – in addition to mask wearing and physical distancing – if they remain unvaccinated. (For more information on vaccine mandates in the workplace, read this article from Connecting the Dots that explains what businesses are, and are not, allowed to require. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce also has offered advice for small businesses that are now considering vaccine mandates.)

Click here to read OSHA’s updated safety guidance.