Businesses hoping to reopen join run on PPE

As every state gradually lifts coronavirus restrictions, employers are scrambling to get enough protective equipment to create a safe work environment. Buying safety equipment, however, has created additional challenges for business owners. In Massachusetts, hundreds of essential workers filed federal complaints including not being provided PPE and being forced to work in grocery stores, at medical facilities and for delivery services beside sick colleagues. Herald-Mail

 

Frontline grocery workers are in the dark about virus risks

Amid the pandemic, the country’s nearly 40,000 grocery stores have been classified by officials as essential businesses that must remain open. As states reopen, many grocers are being criticized by health officials, lawmakers and store employees for not being more open with the public, and their own employees about outbreaks within their stores. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

 

Michigan OSHA found hazards before construction site collapse

MIOSHA inspectors reported violations including not establishing a restricted zone for a masonry wall taller than 8 feet and not posting danger signs on each unsupported masonry wall, at a Traverse City construction site three months before a newly built wall there collapsed last week, injuring four construction workers. Record-Eagle

 

Concerned about COVID-19 at your workplace? Here are steps you can take

Since mid-March, South Carolina OSHA has received more than 300 inquires about COVID-19 safety, according to a spokesperson. Among the concerns reported were lack of personal protective equipment, individuals working who had symptoms, non-compliance with social distancing, and employers not acting on employee complaints. As businesses continue to reopen, what rights do workers have when it comes to health concerns? WSPA

 

Fed-OSHA revises criteria for recording COVID-19 cases

Fed-OSHA last month attempted to simplify decision-making for most employers in determining whether employees diagnosed with COVID-19 contracted the disease at work. That guidance, writes attorney Tommy Eden, partner, Constangy, Brooks, Smith & Prophete, LLP, seemed to be signaling that, unless an employer was in the healthcare industry or certain emergency response organizations, the agency was not expecting many COVID-19 cases to be recordable. Last week, Fed-OSHA issued revised enforcement guidance in an attempt to fine-tune the earlier guidance by broadly explaining circumstances under which a case will be determined to be work-related. Opelika-Auburn News

 

As meat industry returns to work, employees are still getting sick

Despite the company’s efforts to slow the spread of the coronavirus, the number of Tyson employees with COVID-19 has surged, according to a Washington Post analysis. A small portion of the meat industry’s labor force has returned to work, and some of the companies say they are limited in how much they can separate employees from one another. Washington Post/Beaumont Enterprise