Issue link: http://palletcentral.uberflip.com/i/1453353
28 PalletCentral • January-February 2022 palletcentral.com "E lections have consequences," as the saying goes. One year into the Biden administration, it is time to examine what has occurred impacting occupational safety and health – concerning COVID-19 and much more. For the first time since 2016, OSHA has a Senate-confirmed Assistant Secretary, former Boston Mayor Marty Walsh. A long-time union member, and former head of the Building Trades Union, Assistant Secretary Walsh is definitely moving OSHA in a new direction than it was headed during the Trump administration's deregulatory era. Notably, as discussed below, the Obama administration's rulemaking agenda, which lay dormant for four years under GOP rule, has been revived and invigorated. Many changes lay ahead! Most of the attention in 2021 was focused on OSHA's controversial COVID-19 emergency temporary standard (ETS), which would mandate C-19 vaccinations or require unvaxxed workers to be tested weekly (at their own expense) and wear masks while indoors in the workplace if they worked for companies with 100 or more employees. e Vax/ Test ETS was stayed by the U.S. Supreme Court SAFETY By Adele L. Abrams, Esq., CMSP Elections Have Consequences OSHA Outlook 2022 The next 12 months are expected to be busy for OSHA regulations and initiatives that can potentially impact pallet industry companies of all sizes. on January 13, 2022, but it can still be implemented by state OSHA agencies (22 states run their own programs). e final verdict from the federal courts on the legality of the rule is yet to come as of this writing. Meanwhile, OSHA can still conduct enforcement relating to COVID exposures in the workplace, including through its General Duty Clause, Section 5(a)(1) of the OSH Act of 1970. OSHA can also apply existing PPE hazard assessment, respiratory, eye and hand protection, sanitation, hazard communication, medical records access rules, and injury/illness reporting standards to hazards presented to workers. One change OSHA made between the Trump and Biden administrations is how COVID-19 cases should be treated in terms of reporting of hospitalization and fatality cases: altering the normal severe injury reporting rules (29 CFR 1904.39), OSHA now says that if a work-related COVID-19 case results in hospitalization or death at any time after initial exposure, OSHA should be notified within 24 hours of learning of the hospitalization case, or eight hours from learning of the fatality. For other injury/illness cases, OSHA is only notified if the hospitalization occurs within 24 hours of the triggering event, or a fatality occurs within 30 days of the event. OSHA still encourages employers to urge workers to get fully vaccinated, to maintain