OSHA Hour: COVID-19 General Duty Clause Citations—What Can We Expect From Federal OSHA and State Plans?

The six-month time period for the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and most state plans to issue citations for alleged COVID-19-related violations that allegedly occurred at the beginning of the pandemic is just around the corner. So what types of citations are we most likely to see? Will OSHA attempt to use what we all know now but did not know then as the foundation for these citations? Will OSHA rely on U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines that either did not exist in March and April 2020, or that have morphed significantly since then— and in some cases multiple times? What role will the CDC guidelines or state, county, and municipal orders that mandated face masks, social distancing, etc., play? Could those orders, at a minimum, form the basis for General Duty Clause violations under state plans? How about in states where federal OSHA has inspection responsibility? In this webinar, the speakers will provide their insights on these questions and related issues.