12/18/20: December 21: Employee Information & Training Deadline
December 18, 2020
By Natalie Pattison & Andrew Schpak
As a reminder, Oregon OSHA recently published extensive temporary rules related to COVID-19 that apply to almost all Oregon workplaces. These temporary rules include training requirements.
Specifically, employers must provide information and training regarding COVID-19 to employees in a manner understood by employees. In addition, employees must be afforded the opportunity to provide feedback regarding the information and training. The specific topics that must be covered can be found here. OR OSHA also released COVID-19 training modules designed to help employers meet four (4) of the ten (10) employee training requirements, and those can be found here.
Most employers should have the information and training requirements completed by the regulatory deadline on Monday, December 21, 2020. However, OR OSHA recently released an enforcement memo containing the following exceptions to this deadline:
OR OSHA announced an extension for employers affected by the recent statewide freeze and newly adopted risk levels who have therefore experienced significant modifications to their immediate business activities. Those businesses will not be cited for violations of the training provisions of the rule that occur before January 11, 2021.
For all other business, OR OSHA will not enforce compliance issues with regard to the information and training requirements until December 28, so long as the employer acknowledges it is actively working towards meeting the requirements.
It is important that employers stay up-to-date with the many deadlines imposed by OR OSHA’s new rules. Details regarding these and other upcoming employer requirements are outlined in Barran Liebman’s previous E-Alert (originally published November 9, 2020).
For any questions relating to navigating COVID-19 in the workplace, contact Natalie Pattison or Andrew Schpak at 503-228-0500, or at npattison@barran.com or aschpak@barran.com.
Click to access a PDF of this Electronic Alert.
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