Oregon OSHA implemented new rules aimed at protecting employees and suppressing the transmission of COVID-19. The New Rules have multiple requirements that every Oregon employer should review before the effective date of November 1, 2020.
Xenium’s safety partner, Safety Northwest, has put together the following overview:
Distancing
Jobs have to be redesigned so that six feet distancing happens between all individuals.
Face coverings
Face coverings are required including for employees working inside AND outside when strict six feet distancing is not possible.
- Indoor work settings – in any room where the available area is less than 35 square feet per individual, or the room is smaller than 200 square feet, the employer must ensure that all individuals wear face coverings.
- Vehicles – when employees are transported in a motor vehicle for work purposes, regardless of the travel distance or duration involved, all employees must wear face coverings.
Sanitation
Within 24-hours, everything touched by employees or the public has to be cleaned or sanitized. High-touch surfaces even more often. Cleaning sanitation supplies must be conveniently provided throughout the workplace.
Post the “COVID-19 Hazards Poster” at central locations, every point of indoor entry, bathrooms, lunchrooms, breakrooms, and everywhere workers eat. Remote workers must also have the poster information. This poster is not yet available on OR OSHA’s site.
Employee information and training – physical distancing requirements as they apply to each employee’s workplace and job function; face-covering requirements; sanitation requirements; COVID-19 signs and symptom reporting that applies to the employee’s workplace; and medical removal.
Exposure risk assessment
No later than November 21, 2020, all OR employers must conduct a workplace COVID-19 employee exposure risk assessment, without regard to the use of personal protective equipment or masks, face shield, or face coverings. This risk assessment must address 12 specific questions related to assessing potential employee exposure to COVID-19 in the workplace: telework, distancing and face coverings requirements based on the nature of work tasks, engineering controls including ventilation, administration controls including isolation and quarantine, ensuring all work locations of an employer are evaluated and complying with industry-specific COVID-19 operating requirements.
The exposure risk assessment must involve feedback and participation from employees.
Each employer that has more than ten employees statewide (including temporary and part-time workers) must record their COVID-19 exposure risk assessment in writing.
Building operators
Those who operate or control buildings where employees of other employers work, must comply with posting and sanitation rules.
Ventilation requirements include the mandatory operation of HVAC according to manufacturer’s instructions and design specifications. Filters must be maintained and intake ports kept clear and clean.
Distancing officer must be designated. This person has to be responsible for enforcing face covering and sanitation rules.
COVID-19 infection contact tracing
Employees possibly exposed to known or suspected COVID-19 must be notified within 48-hours. Any employee isolated or quarantined must be assigned work that does not involve in-person contact with other workers or the public. Their jobs must be saved for them, and absolutely no retaliation may occur.
The new rules also contain industry-specific or activity-specific guidance for COVID-19 that employers must implement and comply with in addition to the requirements for all employers detailed above.
For full details on the new OR OSHA rules and industry-specific requirements please visit OR OSHA’s site.