According to ABC News, Texas, Mississippi, Iowa, Montana and North Dakota have or will soon end their mask mandates put into place to protect people from contracting COVID-19. Things are not heading that way in Oregon.
Oregon’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration has proposed changes to current workplace masking and social distancing rules which would make both practices “permanent.” When asked why, Oregon’s OSHA administrator Michael Wood argued that “We are not out of the woods yet.”
Oregon’s current COVID-19 workplace rules are set to expire on May 4, and according to Wood, a technicality in state law requires that only a “permanent” rule can prevent expiration. This is why OSHA is proposing the rule change, although it is intended to be repealed once it is “no longer necessary to address [the COVID-19] pandemic.”
Despite the above note about repeal written into the document, opponents of the changes are frustrated by the lack of clarity. The proposed mandate does not provide a date or a specific number of state-wide infections or vaccinations after which OSHA would re-evaluate. Instead, it merely says that “OSHA will consult with [various stakeholders] as circumstances change to determine when all or part of the rule can be appropriately repealed.” Officials rebutted this criticism by saying their decision of when to repeal the rule would depend on many factors, and would be practically impossible to quantify in advance.
So what does this mandate mean for workers and customers? Well, not much would change. The alterations to the current OSHA workplace rules are minimal except the removal of an end-date for these specific responses to the pandemic. Workers would continue being required to wear face masks indoors or when unable to maintain six feet of distance, socially distance as much as possible, and sanitise their workspaces regularly.
The public response to Oregon’s proposed rule change has been overwhelming. Oregon’s OSHA received more than 5,000 public comments about the proposal, although according to Wood a majority of the comments were “hostile to the entire notion of COVID-19 restrictions.”
Although vaccines are becoming more available going forward and the end of COVID-19 is on the horizon, May 4 is fast approaching. Within the next several weeks, OSHA’s rules will need to be renewed or abolished. Wood said that he is reviewing feedback to the rule changes in order to decide if OSHA may alter the proposal before the final decision on the mandate.
By Ardea C. Eichner
Do you have a story for The Advocate? Email editor@corvallisadvocate.com