Workers Comp

Safety organization calls on CDC, OSHA to clarify mask policy

Louise Esola

May 17, 2021 Reprints

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An occupational safety and health organization is calling on the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to clarify whether employers should maintain mask-wearing for employees in light of the federal government’s recent rollback on mask requirements.

The CDC on Thursday announced that people fully vaccinated against COVID-19 do not need to wear masks or practice social distancing indoors or outdoors, except under certain circumstances.

Since the announcement, several large national retailers, including Walmart Inc., announced that workers who are fully vaccinated can forgo masks — an afront to current OSHA guidelines and several individual state occupational safety and health plan emergency rules that call for mask-wearing.

The Falls Church, Virginia-based American Industrial Hygiene Association on Friday said that it believes “the guidance is insufficient” and that the CDC announcement “created troubling confusion among employers, workers, and worker health and safety professionals.”

“AIHA urges the CDC and (OSHA) to clarify what this new guidance means for workers and employers, and how they could implement it,” the statement reads.

Attorneys representing employers have also said that state re-openings and rollbacks of such policies as mask-wearing have created confusion for businesses aiming to comply with rules.

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