[co-author: Myles Moran*]
As we previouslyreported, on May 5, 2021, Governor Andrew Cuomo signed the New York Health and Essential Rights Act (“HERO Act” or the “Act”) into law. On July 6, 2021 the New York State Department of Labor (“NYSDOL”) published its Airborne Infectious Disease Exposure Prevention Standard (the “Standard”), a General Model Airborne Infectious Disease Exposure Prevention Plan, and several Industry Specific Model Exposure Prevention Plans (“Model Plan” or Model Plans”) as required by the HERO Act.
Below is a summary of the new information contained in these publications.
Required Contents of an Exposure Plan
The HERO Act and its amendments require employers adopt or develop a compliant exposure prevention plan 30 days after the NYSDOL published its Standard and Model Plans. That means employers have until August 5, 2021 to adopt one of the Model Plans or develop their own alternative plan that complies with the HERO Act’s requirements. The Standard sets out the baseline exposure controls a compliant plan must contain.