New OSHA Guidance: COVID-19 Illnesses Not Recordable for Construction

On April 10, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) revised its guidance on whether employers are required to record cases of COVID-19 in their Form 300 Logs for reporting occupational injuries and illnesses. OSHA's memo is in direct response to significant concerns raised by NAHB and construction industry partners in a letter to OSHA regarding its position on the recordability of COVID-19 cases. OSHA states that in areas where there is ongoing community transmission, employers may have difficulty making determinations about whether workers who contracted COVID-19 did so due to exposures at work. Until further notice, OSHA will not enforce its recordkeeping requirements to require these employers to make work-relatedness determinations for COVID-19 cases, except where: (1) There is objective evidence that a COVID-19 case may be work-related; and (2) The evidence was reasonably available to the employer. OSHA recordkeeping requirements required covered employers record certain work-related injuries and illnesses on their OSHA 300 log. However, employers of workers in the healthcare industry, emergency response organizations and correctional institutions must continue to make work-relatedness determinations. OSHA's guidance takes effect immediately and remains in effect until further notice, which is intended to be time-limited to the current national public health emergency. Access the latest NAHB news and business resources to respond to this challenge in the Coronavirus Preparedness and Response section on nahb.org.