Health care workers, public transportation employees, meatpacking workers, emergency responders, grocery store workers, utility workers, letter carriers, construction workers, doormen, shop employees, child welfare workers, factory workers, solid waste workers, corrections officers, janitors, and many more are all at risk of contracting the coronavirus on the job every day in the United States.
Thousands of employees have lost their lives, and hundreds of thousands have been infected. More working people becoming sick and dying, and more economic loss, may happen if federal and state governments do not satisfy the following essential demands before lifting or easing preventive measures that are now reducing the number of cases and deaths due to COVID-19.
If the disease were to suddenly explode after the economy had reopened, it would be disastrous. According to the AFL-Five CIO’s Economic Essentials, the first step in any effective plan to save lives, destroy the coronavirus, and rebuild the economy is to prioritise worker safety.
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1: Workers should have a Voice in these Matters at all Levels of Government, including their Local, Regional, State, and National Governments.
Workers and their unions should have a say in determining whether or not it is safe to go to work, as they are the ones whose lives and health are at risk.
2: The well-being of Employees and the Findings of Rigorous Research must Inform all Choices.
When determining whether it is safe for employees to return to work, worker safety must be prioritised, and this must be done using objective scientific evidence rather than political considerations or financial gain.
Occupational health and safety departments are tasked with ensuring the wellbeing of the workforce, and it is their responsibility to ensure this.
Neither the recognition of airborne transmission of the coronavirus nor historical practises in occupational health and safety, such as the hierarchy of controls, have been included into the current government rules.
Redesigning workplaces, improving the availability of sanitary facilities, telecommuting, and other types of social distance are all examples of measures that can be implemented as part of the hierarchy of controls to eliminate or reduce exposure.
3: Health and safety Regulations in the Workplace must be Strong, Clear, and Enforceable.
Both the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) are charged with creating and enforcing rules to hold numerous employers accountable for their duty to ensure the safety of their employees in the workplace.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) must issue an emergency temporary standard for infectious diseases that mandates the development and implementation of an infection control plan, including requirements for hazard assessment, engineering controls, work practise and administrative controls, provision of personal protective equipment, training, medical surveillance, and medical removal, by all employers, including public employers in states without an approved OSHA state plan.
In order to ensure that businesses in every industry are adequately protecting their employees, federal and state safety agencies must examine workplaces to enforce both current standards and the infectious disease standard, and give unambiguous enforcement orders.
4: Increased safeguards for workers against retribution are an important fourth requirement.
Workers should be allowed to refuse work if they are unsafely exposed to the virus due to a lack of protective gear or training. Workers who report unsafe working circumstances to their employers, public entities, social media, or the press; who carry their own protective equipment in excess of what their employers supply; or who test positive for the virus should be afforded more legal safeguards.
For more susceptible workers with other health concerns who may not be able to return to work during the pandemic, it is essential that their employment be maintained.
Employers are responsible for enacting and enforcing all of these safeguards, while federal and state governments oversee and monitor compliance.
Quickly following up on all whistleblower complaints and issuing directions outlining proactive enforcement of anti-retaliation safeguards is a priority for OSHA.
5: Personal protection equipment (PPE) for personnel on the job and those returning to work needs to be greatly expanded.
All employees at risk need ready access to clean, plentiful supplies of PPE including respirators and gloves. Workers at the front lines of the most dangerous environments need access to and priority in the distribution of reusable respirators that offer even greater protection than disposable N95 respirators.
Training, fit testing, a secure don and doff process (with designated areas and processes), proper equipment disposal and sanitation procedures, and compliance with OSHA’s respiratory protection standard are all essential components of PPE use (1910.134).
Before reopening, businesses should make preparations, such as training, disinfection procedures, fit testing, and supply purchase, for the use of reusable respirators in addition to disposable respirators.
6: There needs to be a significant increase in access to accurate and timely coronavirus testing.
Testing for coronaviruses on a large scale is necessary for determining the severity of the threat before it is possible to lift preventative steps in a responsible and safe manner. The testing process needs to be easy to access, quick, and cost-free.
The federal government cannot simply shirk its role and let the states to fend for themselves; instead, it must develop and implement a strategic strategy to secure the manufacture of a sufficient quantity of trustworthy testing kits, with priority testing for front-line personnel.
Public health benchmarks could benefit from antibody testing, but only if appropriate precautions are taken, and employers should not be permitted to use the results to make hiring decisions.
7: There has to be a centralised government agency in charge of collecting, reporting, and analysing data on workplace illnesses.
All employees should be treated as though they had COVID-19 unless proven otherwise. Workplace infections must be reported immediately to state and municipal health departments, in coordination with the federal government.
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8: Employers, working with state and local public health agencies, must identify coworkers who may have been exposed to an infectious disease and remove them from their positions, with pay and without retaliation, if necessary.
Those at risk of exposure need to be made aware of the situation, evacuated from hazardous environments, and safeguarded against financial and professional ruin.
While this is happening, there has to be controls in place to ensure that employee information and privacy are safe.
Workers, especially those in front-line positions, should be guaranteed at least 14 days of paid sick leave per year to protect their health and the public’s.
