Federal Manager's Daily Report

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New guidance from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration on Coronavirus-related safety precautions at medical facilities could spur some changes in practices at federal facilities although the exact impact is yet to be assessed.

The guidance overall applies to settings where “any employee provides healthcare services or healthcare support services,” OSHA said. Also, the administration’s recent separate guidance to agencies on pandemic-related workplace policies similarly says that agencies are to take into consideration guidance from entities such as OSHA and the CDC.

The guidance addresses areas such as the authority of workplace safety coordinators, hazard assessment, input from employees and their unions, provision of personal protective equipment, physical distancing and barriers, ventilation, cleaning, protections against retaliation for raising health-related concerns, and more.

Said the AFGE union, which represents a large portion of the VA medical workforce, “Two elements stand out: a requirement to communicate with affected employees and that it is the employer’s obligation to comply with the standard at no cost to the workers.”

“Throughout this pandemic, AFGE has joined others, including the AFL-CIO, in advocating for this standard to protect the health and safety of workers who were exposed to dangerous working conditions because of the pandemic. This temporary emergency standard should have come much earlier, but we are pleased that it is finally released,” it said.

The guidance is at www.osha.gov/coronavirus/ets.

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