February 9, 2022
Workplace Safety Setback and Remaining Protections: Defending your Right to a Safe Workplace
In November, CDM wrote about a new emergency temporary standard (ETS) by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to protect workers in the United States from the spread of COVID-19. In that blog post, CDM explained that the rule would have required testing and masks, or vaccinations, for workers in most jobs with 100 or more employees and was set to go into effect on January 4, 2022.
Recently, CDM learned that the United States Supreme Court is preventing the rule from taking effect nationwide, and OSHA is removing the ETS altogether. While this is a step back, important protections continue to exist for workers in the United States:
You have the right to a safe and healthy workplace. Under what is called the “General Duty” part of a law called the Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Act, each employer in the United States must ensure that the workplace is free from known health and safety hazards that are likely to cause serious harm or death to workers. This is an important protection right now, because it means that your employer must ensure that your workplace is protected from the hazard of contracting the virus that causes COVID-19.
Depending on your worksite, this means that your employer may need to:
Provide you with free personal protective equipment, including N95 respirators or equivalent;
Ensure either six feet of distancing between you and other workers, or provide barriers between workers when distancing is not an option;
Screen employee(s) for COVID-19 symptoms and potential COVID-19 exposure; and
Provide regular cleaning and disinfecting of your workplace.
You have a right to make a complaint to the government about your safety and health concerns! If your employer is not taking measures to protect you from COVID-19, or you are facing other dangerous conditions at work, you have the right to file a confidential complaint with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).
You also have the right to be protected from retaliation. United States law makes it illegal for your employer to fire or otherwise retaliate against you for taking steps to make your workplace a healthier and safer place, including when you make complaints to OSHA or to your employer about your safety and health concerns. Retaliation includes:
Intimidating you or making threats against you, like threatening to not rehire you;
Reducing your regular pay;
Denying you overtime pay;
Denying you benefits, like paid sick leave; and/or
Firing you.
If your employer does retaliate against you, you must report the retaliation within 30 days of when it happened in order to be protected by the law. This means that if you think you have been retaliated against, you should contact CDM or OSHA as soon as possible.
Additionally, if you have questions about your safety in your workplace, if you would like to make a complaint to OSHA, or if you think you have been retaliated against, reach out to us!
For more information on protections in the workplace, contact Centro de los Derechos del Migrante, Inc. (CDM) from Mexico at (800) 590-1773 or from the United States at: 1 (855) 234-9699. To speak to someone in Mixteco call: 953-554-0517. Our services are completely free and confidential.