The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) will release new guidelines for businesses next week. In a January executive order, Biden granted the agency a March 15 deadline to decide whether mandatory safety rules were needed to protect workers from the coronavirus. Has a government agency ever approved the processing of new restrictions on companies during a Democratic administration?
Many local rulers and officials are in the process of opening their states after a year of closures, so what better time for the government to intervene and step on these actions? Last night during his speech to the nation on the occasion of the one-year anniversary of the coronavirus in the United States, Biden paid service to business owners who have lost business during the pandemic. He did not mention that OSHA would meet the deadline imposed by an executive order by Biden during its second day at the Oval Office. The new guidelines on how companies will have to operate during the pandemic are supposed to be temporary. Unfortunately, we know that it is rare for any government action to be temporary. Companies should prepare for what’s to come as they try to get back on their feet. Democrats and unions are reported to have called for these regulations since the pandemic began. Joe Biden never met any union that didn’t want to calm down.
The regulations are intended to protect workers against COVID-19. OSHA has not issued an emergency temporary standard since 1983, as a reference.
Emergency regulation is expected to require at least the CDC and OSHA guidelines (which recommend that workers wear masks and keep six feet away, even after vaccination), as well as other specific measures employers have taken. to take to protect your workers from exposure to coronavirus.
Most companies are already making masks and social distancing. OSHA is expected to meet the requirements for masks to be of a higher grade, for example, such as N95, and upgrade ventilation systems. You see where this is going: additional financial costs for companies that are already struggling to hold out until they can reopen completely. There will also be enforcement and auditing by OSHA, and Congress will provide additional funding for this. Democrats spent $ 75 million on OSHA in its stimulus that Biden signed the law Thursday. Homeowners will face fines if they fail to comply.
“Without one [emergency temporary standard], it is very difficult for OSHA to require employers to take precautionary measures, “David Michaels, the former head of OSHA during the Obama administration, told lawmakers Thursday.” If exposure is not controlled at the site of work, more workers will be infected, along with members of their families and communities, causing more disease and death, and endangering the nation’s ability to resume economic growth. “
There may be additional mandates beyond the current recommendations: at the hearing in which Michaels appeared, health and safety experts urged the CDC to recognize in guidelines that the virus can spread through aerosols, in place larger drops.
Pascaline Muhindura, a registered nurse affiliated with the National Nurses United union, defended it during Thursday’s hearing, telling lawmakers that the hospital where she worked could not provide her and her co-workers with the equipment. adequate protection, which “caused many Covid-19 infections and eventually the death of one of my co-workers”.
True, employers are blamed for having blood on their hands. When Biden began his speech last night, you may remember that he punched Trump without actually saying his name and that he essentially accused him of having blood on his hands. “A year ago we received a virus that was silenced and spread without control. Denials for days, weeks and then months that caused more deaths, more infections, more stress and more loneliness. A public health professor went one step further and said “tens of thousands” were lost for lack of regulations.
“It would have been better if it had arrived half a year ago,” Lawrence Gostin, a public health professor at Georgetown Law, told POLITICO that the upcoming regulations are “ethically essential.” “We could have saved tens of thousands of lives of vulnerable workers, but even now there are many lives we can save through solid regulation of work environments.”
This will affect the red states faster than most blue states, as few blue states are making moves to reopen completely. Some blue states like New York are relaxing their restrictions now. What the Biden administration will present is the opposite of how the Trump administration handled the pandemic. This is by design, of course, as Biden is determined to be the anti-Trump leader, whether Trump’s policies worked or not. It is petty and will probably be destructive for many companies, after the economic recovery of our country in general. Most companies hold mask mandates at the moment, even in states that are now fully open. The new federal regulations will also conflict with state regulations.
“I think that’s going to be the big concern,” said Larry Lynch, senior vice president of science and industry for the National Restaurant Association. “Cost will be an important factor.”
The mismatch between federal recommendations and state regulations causes some business groups to also take a prudent approach. The National Restaurant Association says it is not fully prepared to leave behind its recommendations on masks.
“As long as we look at the entire spectrum of the United States and don’t really know when things will change from state to state, we will continue to recommend that restaurants need facial masks for employees and require them for guests, except for those who are eating them.” , said Lynch, of the ANR.
Democrats believe in a great government solution for most situations. Republicans believe in individual and personal responsibility. This has always been the case. A single list for all government regulations will not help companies across the country regain a more normal way of operating.