b'OSHA Updatemay not be used by OSHA as a substitute for specific rule-COVID-19 Safety Guidancemaking very likely will not apply to the pandemic. OSHA has issuedthisguidancedocumentandmaywell,withtheurging of President Biden, issue an Emergency Temporary By Gary W. AumanStandard within the next six weeks.The second reason for my statement is that OSHA has communicated its finding As I am sure we all suspected, the newthatthepandemicisarecognizedhazardwhichis administration has taken an acceleratedcausing or likely to cause death or serious physical harm to and aggressive approach with regards toemployeeswhicharetheelementsnecessarytoinvoke safety in the workplace. On January 21,GeneralDutyClause.Again,whetheryouagreewiththe 2021PresidentBidenissuedanscience that the pandemic meets this definition, I submit Executive Order on Protecting Workerthatnoneofyouwanttobeinapositionofhavingto HealthandSafety.InthisExecutive defendyourselffromaGeneralDutyClausecitationOrder, the President stated that it is the policy of hisad- because you do not have a pandemic prevention plan for ministration to ensure the health and safety of workers asyour workforce.a national priority and a moral imperative. He further stat-ed that the federal government must move quickly to re- Presuming that you have developed the required pandemic duce the risk that workers may contract COVID19 in theprotection program, I want to direct your attention to the workplace. In Section 2 of the Executive Order, he statedOSHAwebsiteandthecoronavirusresourcesavailable that the Assistant Secretary of Labor shall issue, within 2thereon.Theguidancedocumentidentifies15stepsfor weeks of the date of the Executive Order, revised guidanceemployers to take to respond to COVID19. Review those to employers on workplace safety during the COVID1915 elements and identify those that apply to your business pandemic. He also required that the Assistant Secretary ofand your employees and, if you have not done so already, Laborconsiderwhetheranyemergencytemporarydevelop your COVID19 prevention program and be sure standardsonCOVID19arenecessary,andifitisyo uincludethoseelementsthatapplyto yourcompany. determined that such standards are necessary, they shallBut, please remember that developing the program is only be issued by March 15, 2021. 50% of what you need to accomplish. After you have the program,youneedtocommunicateittoallyour The guidance document referred to in the Executive Orderemployees, remind them that you will be enforcing all the was issued on January 29 thand is 13 pages long and goescomponents of your program, and then you MUST enforce into quite a bit of detail. I will not go into the detail coveredit. And you need to ensure that ALL your employees are by the guidance document but just touch upon some of theabiding by therequirements of your program. high points. This guidance document can be found on the OSHAwebsiteatwww.osha.govunderCoronavirus Letus take a look at those 15 elements, which can be found resources. OSHA states that employers should implementunder the subheading The Rolls of Employers and Workers COVID19 prevention programs. Your program should bein Responding to COVID19. The initial step identified by developedby:(1)conductingahazardassessment;(2)OSHAisthatthemosteffectiveCOVID19prevention identifying a combination of measures that limit the spreadprograms engage workers and their representatives in the of COVID19 in the workplace; (3) adopting measures toprograms development and implementation of every step, ensurethatworkerswhoareinfectedorpotentiallyinfected are separated and sent home from the workplace; and(4)implementingprotectionsfromretaliationfor workers who raise COVID19 related concerns.While OSHA uses the word should, employers who are concerned for the well-being of their employees and who wish to avoid an OSHA General Duty Clause citation need toadoptaCOVID19PreventionProgram.AsIhave stated before, the current pandemic is a textbook example of Congresss intention when it drafted Section 5(a)(1) of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970. I make this comment for 2 reasons. First, unlike some areas in which OSHAhasbeensuccessfullychallengedforapplyingthe General Duty Clause, such as with heat illness prevention, theCOVID-19recognizedhazardhasexistedforless than one year. So, the defense available to employers to a CONTINUED ON PAGE 12 General Duty Clause citation that the General Duty Clause Page 10CONSTRUCTION JOURNAL'