Kaplan Comments on OSHA’s Role in COVID-19 Workplace Compliance

Partner Dan Kaplan was quoted in an In Business article, “OSHA takes a whack at COVID-19 workplace compliance,” about President Biden’s executive order directing the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to update previously developed coronavirus protocols and evaluate the need to implement new emergency COVID-19 regulations over which it can enforce compliance.

Kaplan, co-chair of Foley’s Labor and Employment Practice Group, said he’s not sure if OSHA will issue any new regulations at all. But if it does, he said, it could either follow the usual rule-making process, under which proposed regulations are published and public comments are invited before final regulations are issued, or it could issue new regulations on an emergency basis without public comment.

“Initially, I think that if OSHA decides new and additional regulations are needed, then it will go the emergency route,” he said.