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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.
Virginia is set to permanently adopt workplace safety standards for COVID-19 prevention. Virginia’s Safety and Health Codes Board voted 9-4 last week to maintain a list of emergency workplace safety rules including businesses requiring employees who are in regular contact with the public to wear masks. The regulations were backed by worker advocacy and union organizations, but opposed by a coalition of more than 30 business organizations. The rules could be lifted if the Governor’s state of emergency is lifted.
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As discussed in our blog “Virginia Takes the Lead in Adopting Workplace Safety Regulations for COVID-19,” in July 2020, Virginia became the first state to enact a temporary COVID-19 emergency workplace rule set to expire on January 27, 2021. The Virginia Safety and Health Codes Board approved a permanent rule on January 13, 2021, that will essentially make the temporary rule permanent, with some changes. The permanent rule must be reviewed by Governor Northam and, if no revisions are requested (or if no action is taken within 30 days), will become effective when published in a Richmond newspaper.
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Since January 1, California businesses have been subject to ramped-up COVID-19 notification and reporting requirements under amendments to California’s Occupational Safety and Health Act, which are designed principally to combat the spread of COVID-19 at work and to reduce the overall rate of infection in the state, as well as to hold employers responsible for monitoring the health and safety of their employees. The new law is temporary and is set to expire in two years, on January 1, 2023.
Although California is now the epicenter of new COVID-19 infections in the United States, numerous other states have experienced alarming upticks in deaths and new infections which may have them eyeing emergency notification requirements like California’s. At least two other states have already implemented temporary notification guidelines specifying when, how, what, and to whom information about potential on-the-job exposure to
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On January 13, the Virginia Department of
Labor and Industry s Safety and Health Codes Board voted to
enact a permanent workplace safety rule to protect employees from
COVID-19 exposure, making Virginia one of the first states in the
US to impose COVID-19-specific safety requirements on public and
private employers of all sizes. The permanent rule largely mirrors
the board s temporary emergency workplace safety standards,
which were passed in July, and in key respects mandates and even
exceeds the guidance issued by the US Centers for Disease