Placing a continued focus on enhancing worker safety is more crucial now during the COVID-19 pandemic than ever before, said experts at the Voluntary Protection Programs Participants’ Association Inc. first annual Next Level Safety virtual conference on Tuesday.

“Workplaces are much safer today … but workers continue to get hurt and killed on the job every day and there is still much work to do,” said Jim Frederick, deputy assistant secretary of Labor for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, who was appointed to the post in late January. “Fatalities and injuries can be reduced by ensuring that safety standards are followed.”

During the opening keynote address, Mr. Frederick highlighted OSHA’s recent pandemic response plans, which included issuing updated guidance for employers on COVID-19 protections in January and looking into whether an emergency temporary standard for COVID-19 “is necessary.”

“There’s a lot of work to do to reaffirm OSHA’s commitment to worker safety,” he said.

Jimmy Hart, president of the metal trades department at the AFL-CIO, who also spoke at the opening address, noted the risks that many workers faced in the past 15 months due to the pandemic.

“Workers have been subjected to yet another deadly risk at work,” he said. “Workers are currently faced with the sad reality that not everyone involved operates under the same principles. Their safety concerns need to be taken seriously.”

One step in the right direction, said VPPPA Chairman Terry Schulte, is to support the Voluntary Protection Program Act, which has been introduced in the U.S. House and Senate and has been referred to committee in both chambers. Although the program has been in place since 1982, it is not a statutory program. If the act passes, it would make the VPP permanent. Similar legislation was introduced in 2019 but did not pass.

“It should never be forgotten that VPP is a true partnership,” Mr. Schulte, who is the director of corporate VPP for San Antonio, Texas-based NuStar Energy LP. “We should commend the management of companies that get it. … “The VPP program … proves we are better together.”

More insurance and workers compensation news on the coronavirus crisis here.