3. Labor unions sue OSHA over lack of infectious disease standard
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Improving safety regulations for workers facing the risk of infectious diseases was big news in 2020, as states grappled to create emergency rules and the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration reiterated its general duty clause that requires employers to provide safe work sites.
That was not enough for a coalition of labor unions representing education, health care and municipal workers that on Oct. 29 sued the U.S. Secretary of Labor and OSHA over the lack of an official standard to protect workers from infectious diseases.
News of the lawsuit, filed in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, was the third-most-read workers compensation article on Business Insurance’s website in 2020.
The lawsuit — American Federation of Teachers; the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees; the Washington State Nurses Association; and the United Nurses Association of California v. Occupational Safety and Health Administration; United States Department of Labor; Eugene Scalia — chronicles years of delays in creating a standard that would provide employers with guidance on handling infectious disease outbreaks.
The plaintiffs asked the court to compel OSHA to proceed on an “expedited basis to promptly issue a standard.” So far, however, there has been no movement on the suit, however, a Department of Labor spokeswoman wrote in an email to Business Insurance on Oct. 30 that “the Department is committed to protecting America’s workers during the pandemic, and OSHA has been working around the clock to that end.”
Meanwhile, states have made some progress. On July 15, Virginia became the first state to create its own emergency temporary standard, developed by the Virginia Department of Labor and Industries.
