A new "advisory"工作场所安全指导from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration is largely consistent with the COVID-19 protocols the construction industry has long had in place, safety specialists reviewing the document released Jan. 29 say.

The advisory outlines recommended precautions and policies to protect workers from exposure to COVID-19. The document applies to construction and all other industries except health care and emergency response. It is not a regulation or mandatory safety standard—something that organized labor has been seeking for months.

Rather, the OSHA guidance states that its recommendations “are advisory in nature, informational in content and are intended to assist employers in providing a safe and healthful workplace.”

OSHA's formal safety standards are mandatory and enforceable.

拜登安全指示

The OSHA action is a response to President Joe Biden’sJan. 21 executive order on worker health and safety，这将在两周内向原子能发行“对Covid-19大流行期间的工作场所安全的修订指引”。

更多的行动可能是：拜登的执行命令还将OSHA指导“考虑”是否需要冠状病毒的任何紧急临时工作场所标准。

Biden的指令要求在3月15日之前对OSHA关于此类标准的回复。

Brian Turmail, an Associated General Contractors of America spokesman, said via email: “Our initial read is that the new guidance is consistent with many of the safety practices firms have already been using to successfully protect workers and local communities from the spread of the coronavirus.”

Turmail adds that the association will be checking with AGC member firms’ safety specialists to do a more detailed evaluation of the guidance “to confirm that it will, in fact, be effective in protecting workers.”

Greg Sizemore, Associated Builders and Contractors' vice president of health, safety, environment and workforce development, said via email that the group "is currently reviewing the new OSHA guidance from the lens of the construction industry."

Sizemore notes that OSHA has classified construction as low hazard regarding the pandemic and that the Dept. of Homeland Security has deemed the industry "essential critical infrastructure" since the pandemic began.

行业联盟2020计划

Sizemore adds that ABC "has taken countless actions to protect our member [firms'] employees because safety is a foundational pillar of who we are and what we have accomplished in our 70-year history."

Sizemore also points to aCovid-19建筑行业安全联盟于2020年3月发布的响应计划。He says the plan "provides a comprehensive approach for minimizing the risk of exposure to COVID-19 in the construction work environment."

The plan, he says, covers such topics as protective personal equipment, use of face coverings and how to respond to workers who test positive for the virus or show symptoms of the disease. ABC, AGC and 28 other construction business groups are members of the coalition.

Do's and Don'ts

The new OSHA guidance covers several main topics, with many specific “do and don’t” recommendations under each of them. The topics include conducting a hazard assessment and identifying controls to limit the virus spread.

此外，OSHA的指导要求采用处理员工缺勤的政策，以鼓励可能被感染留在家里的工人。OSHA指出，这些政策不应该是“惩罚工人”的政策。

OSHA还建议实施保障措施rom retaliation for workers who “raise coronavirus-related concerns.”

其他建议包括向讲英语的工人和那些没有的工人传达Covid-19保护政策。

OSHA确实发出更新construction industry-specific COVID-19 safety guidance5月2020年。