HSI strives to help Safety and HR professionals understand new mandates, as well as understand what, regardless of mandates, are the best practices to make your workplace safe. As such, we have put together a document which contains the text of the OSHA COVID-19 Emergency Temporary Standard published on Nov 5, 2021, in a format that is easier to digest.

Additionally, HSI created an organizational assessment tool specific to this ETS that is a companion piece to the standard. The assessment tool assists organizations to evaluate current policies and practices that create a COVID safe workplace for employees and customers.

Organizations may want or need to have policies regarding COVID vaccines, testing, and masking in order to address a variety of needs, in addition to the OSHA ETS, such as:

• State and other local government regulations similar to the OSHA ETS that have been in place or may currently be under review to be updated.
• Local (state, county, municipal) health department regulations regarding reporting vaccination rates and/or virus cases.
• Corporate policies/mandates (many large corporations have mandates regarding vaccines, testing and mask wearing, for example, Tyson Foods, Walt Disney Corporation, Microsoft, Amtrak, Hewlett-Packard, to name a few.)
• Requirements from other companies your organization does business with (i.e. COVID safety mandates that apply to contractors and vendors, that your employees may fall under.)
• Competition to be an employer of choice, providing a safe place to work.
• Collective bargaining agreements that include elements of the OSHA ETS regarding making the workplace safe for employees.

Download the standard and the assessment tool to make informed decisions about your workplace and ensure the safety of your employees and customers.