PASS supports H.R. 6559, the COVID–19 Every Worker Protection Act of 2020, to require the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to promulgate an emergency temporary standard to protect employees from occupational exposure to SARS–CoV–2, the virus responsible for COVID-19.

Every day, health care workers; aviation and transit workers; meatpacking workers; first responders; grocery workers; utility workers; agricultural workers; waste workers; letter carriers; construction workers; social service workers; doormen; retail workers; factory workers; janitors; correctional officers and other workers are being exposed to coronavirus in the workplace.  

While many employees represented by PASS are teleworking or reporting infrequently to government facilities, there is no guarantee that comprehensive OSHA guidelines will be in place once local restrictions ease and employees begin reporting to work. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has issued guidance to protect workers but that guidance is not binding.

The Occupational Safety and Health Act gives the Department of Labor the authority to issue a Emergency Temporary Standard if employees are exposed to grave danger from new hazards and that is what the House Education and Labor Committee is trying to accomplish by introducing H.R. 6559.

All frontline workers deserve the appropriate resources, equipment, training and protocols to be readily available in their workplaces so that they can be protected and avoid infecting other people, including patients, co-workers, the public and their own families when they go home.

We urge all PASS members and bargaining unit employees to contact their member of Congress and urge them to support H.R. 6559 to protect themselves and all of America’s workers.