Nearly two years after enacting the first-in-the-nation permanent COVID-19 workplace safety and health standard, the Virginia Safety and Health Codes Board (the “Board”) has voted to.
The first state to implement workplace health and safety standards for COVID-19 is poised to roll back those requirements. Virginia’s Permanent COVID-19 Employee Health and Safety.
On January 15, 2022, his first day in office, Governor Glenn Youngkin promulgated Executive Order 6 which directs the Virginia Safety and Health Codes Board (the Board) “to convene an.
Thursday, January 28, 2021
Last summer, we reported on Virginia’s adoption of an “Emergency Temporary Standard for Infection Disease Prevention: SARS-CoV-2 Virus That Causes COVID-19” (the “Temporary Standard”), which made Virginia the first state to implement workplace safety and health standards for COVID-19. The Temporary Standard expired on January 26, 2021.
On January 27, 2021, Governor Ralph Northam approved the Final Permanent Standard (the “Permanent Standard”) previously adopted by the Virginia Safety and Health Codes Board (the “Board”), which provides continued protection for Virginia employees for the duration of the pandemic and supersedes the previous regulations. In addition to extending many of the employer obligations set forth in the Temporary Standard, the Permanent Standard creates new requirements and dispenses with some previous guidance.
Thursday, January 28, 2021
As we previously reported, Virginia became the first state to issue mandatory COVID-19 workplace safety rules via an emergency temporary standard (“ETS”) executed on July 15, 2020. The temporary standard expired on January 26, 2021 but the Virginia Department of Labor and Industry’s Safety and Health Codes Board (the “Board”) has recently taken steps to ensure the protection for workers will continue beyond its expiration. On January 13, 2021 in a 9-4 vote, the Board passed permanent workplace virus safety regulations that mirror but also enhance those in the ETS. The permanent regulations became effective on January 27, 2021, with announcements being made on the DOLI website, found here, and in the Richmond Times Dispatch, found here.