The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is the last stop for numerous workplace complaints regarding safety amidst the coronavirus crisis. Over half of such former complaints originated from the healthcare industry, but employees from prisons, supermarkets, and many other industries are also submitting their workplace safety concerns to OSHA. Since the pandemic hit in March, the agency has received over 6,000 complaints directly related to unsafe conditions involving COVID-19. (It was 6,009 as of June 30th.) The manner in which these cases have been closed has become a magnet for criticism. 5,220 of the complaints referenced above were closed out and tagged as “other-than-serious” – that’s over 86% of the responses and it is unclear how much, if any action, was taken in investigating the claims. A member of the Council of for Occupational Safety and Health called OSHA’s reaction to the pandemic “a national disgrace” while commenting on how the agency has “been missing in action.” In a similar vein, a former head of the Agency, David Michaels, recently remarked, “OSHA is AWOL.”

The current director of OSHA, Loren Sweatt, was questioned by Congress about the agency’s strategy regarding the coronavirus emergency. While critics have raised alarm about OSHA’s unwillingness to update code and regulations for workplace safety when an infectious disease is rampant, Sweatt told Federal legislators he believed non-binding guidance for employers was “effective” and that such regulations are “cumbersome to revise.”

Jude Derisme, vice president of a service employee union, filed a complaint to OSHA regarding nurses who were required to wear the same facemask with patients diagnosed with COVID-19 and those who were in the hospital for other reasons. Over a week later, the only answer Derisme received was a voicemail that claimed OSHA was not investigating matters related to the coronavirus outbreak. The Hospital itself got no notice of Derisme’s grievance. Upon hearing Derisme’s story, OSHA denied the voicemail and later contacted the vice president to further review the complaint. According to the agency, 208 of the over 6,000 complaints were in Florida- with over 100 of those already closed and 19 spurring investigations. An investigation does not mean an in-person inspection is conducted, though, unless the investigators deem it necessary. Four Florida businesses who were investigated by OSHA claimed they never got a visit and their cases were closed quickly, according to a report by the Miami Herald.

As of June 9th OSHA had issued just one citation in relation to the pandemic. A nursing home in Georgia was fined $6,500 for failure to report six hospitalized employees within 24 hours of their admittance.

Until Next Time,