UPDATE - COVID-19 Prevention Emergency Temporary Standards What Employers Need to Know About the April 21 Standards

On April 21, the Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board readopted the Cal/OSHA COVID-19 Prevention Emergency Temporary Standards (ETS) for the third time. These emergency standards include important revisions in light of updated guidance from the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) and make the ETS more flexible if changes are made to CDPH guidance in the future. The emergency standards became effective on May 6, 2022 and will remain in effect through December 31, 2022, and apply to most workers in California not covered by the Aerosol Transmissible Diseases standard.

Important unchanged requirements in the COVID-19 Emergency Temporary Standards include:

• Employers must establish, implement, and maintain an effective written COVID-19 Prevention Program that includes:
  • Identifying and evaluating employee exposures to COVID-19 health hazards.
  • Implementing effective policies and procedures to correct unsafe and unhealthy conditions.
  • Allowing adequate time for handwashing
• Employers must provide effective training and instruction to employees on how COVID-19 is spread, infection prevention techniques, and information regarding COVID-19-related benefits that affected employees may be entitled to under applicable federal, state, or local laws.

Important revisions to the COVID-19 Prevention Emergency Temporary Standards include: Face Coverings

Face covering requirements are the same for all employees regardless of vaccination status and are no longer required in all indoor locations.

• Face coverings are mandatory in the ETS when CDPH requires their use.
• Employers must review CDPH Guidance for the Use of Face Masks to learn when face coverings are required.
• Note: Employees can still request face coverings from the employer at no cost to the employee and can wear them at work, regardless of vaccination status and without fear of retaliation

Respirators

• Employers must provide respirators to employees who request them for voluntary use regardless of vaccination status.

Cleaning and Disinfecting

• The ETS no longer includes any cleaning and disinfecting requirements

Testing and Exclusion

• Employers are now required to make COVID-19 testing available at no cost and during paid time to employees with COVID-19 symptoms regardless of vaccination status and regardless of whether there is a known exposure. COVID-19 testing must also be made available to employees who had a close contact in the workplace, during outbreaks, and during major outbreaks.
• The detailed prescriptive requirements for exclusion of employees after close contact have been deleted. Instead, employers must review CPDH guidelines for individuals who had close contact and implement quarantine and other measures in the workplace to prevent COVID-19 transmission in the workplace.
• The requirements for employees who test positive for COVID-19 have been updated to reflect the most recent CDPH isolation and quarantine guidelines. Regardless of vaccination status, positive employees can return to work after 5 days if the employee has a negative test, symptoms are improving, and they wear a face covering at work for an additional 5 days. Otherwise most employees can return after 10 days.

Definitions

• “Close contact” and “infectious period” are now defined so that their meaning will change if CDPH changes its definition of the term in a regulation or order. This will allow more flexibility and consistency with CDPH.
• “COVID-19 test” was simplified to make it easier to use self-administered and self-read tests. A video or observation of the entire test process is no longer necessary; just a date/timestamped photo of the test result will now be sufficient.  NOTE: The District confirmed with Cal-OSHA there must be an independent verification of results, such as a time and date stamped photo of the results.  
• “Fully vaccinated" was deleted as this term is no longer used in the regulations. All protections now apply regardless of vaccination status and requirements do not vary based on an employee’s vaccination status.

For COVID-19 Emergency Temporary Standards Frequently Asked Questions, dated February 22, 2022, click here.

Some important requirements that remain unchanged in the COVID-19 Emergency Temporary Standards:

• Employers must establish, implement, and maintain an effective written COVID-19 Prevention Program that includes:
• • • Identifying and evaluating employee exposures to COVID-19 health hazards.
    • Implementing effective policies and procedures to correct unsafe and unhealthy conditions.
    • Allowing adequate time for handwashing and cleaning frequently touched surfaces and objects.
• Employers must provide effective training and instruction to employees on how COVID-19 is spread, infection prevention techniques, and information regarding COVID-19 related benefits that affected employees may be entitled to under applicable federal, state, or local laws.  

Important revisions to the COVID-19 Prevention Emergency Temporary Standards include:

Investigating and responding to COVID-19 cases in the workplace
Employers must continue to properly notify employees, employee representatives and any other workers at a worksite of possible COVID-19 exposures within one business day. This section was updated to give employers more clear instructions on how to notify workers who were at the same worksite as the COVID-19 case during the high-risk exposure period.

Face Coverings
Employees who are exempted from wearing a face covering due to a medical or mental health condition, or disability and cannot wear a non-restrictive alternative must physically distance at least six feet from others and either be fully vaccinated or tested at least weekly for COVID-19.

Note: The testing must be during paid time and at no cost to the employee.

Testing and Exclusion

• Employers are now required to make COVID-19 testing available at no cost and during paid time to employees who were fully vaccinated before the “close contact” with a COVID-19 case occurred, even if they are asymptomatic.
• During outbreaks and major outbreaks, employers must now make weekly testing (outbreaks) or twice-weekly testing (major outbreaks) available to asymptomatic fully vaccinated employees in the exposed group
• Employees who have recently recovered from COVID-19 and those who are fully vaccinated are not required to be excluded from the workplace after “close contact” but must wear a face covering and maintain six feet of physical distancing for 14 calendar days following the last date of contact.

Return to Work Criteria

The period of time before an employee can return to work after “close contact” or COVID-19 illness has been revised to be consistent with current CDPH guidelines. These time frames will automatically update if CDPH updates their guidelines pursuant to the Governor’s executive order.

Definitions

• “Worksite” now specifically excludes the employee’s personal residence, locations where an employee works alone, and remote work locations chosen by the employee.
• Definitions revised to be more consistent with federal OSHA, including:

• “COVID-19 test” now includes specific instructions for workers using a test at home with self-read results. The employer or a telehealth professional must observe the test results.
• “Face coverings” was updated to include more specific detail on the different types of acceptable face coverings.
• “Fully vaccinated,” now mentions the minimal amount of time workers need to wait between the first and second shot of a two-dose vaccine.

On October 27, 2021 the Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board updated the COVID-19 Emergency Temporary Standards.  

Cal/OSHA’s Emergency Temporary Standards (ETS) on COVID-19 Prevention require employers to exclude employees from the workplace under certain circumstances. Employees excluded due to COVID-19 may qualify for pay under ETS depending on where the exposure occurred.  

• Part-time employees’ hours are pro-rated based on the number of hours normally scheduled to work over two weeks  
• The new legislation took effect October 27, 2021 
  • Employees that took sick leave related to COVID-19 between January 1, 2021 and September 30, 2021 for one of the qualifying reasons under SB95 must request and submit an application for retroactive pay.  Pay and leave adjustments cannot be made without a formal request

Please contact Risk Management by emailing riskmanagement@menifeeusd.org for further information.