Under the New York Health and Essential Rights Act (HERO Act), the New York State Department of Labor (NYDOL), in consultation with the New York State Department of Health, has developed a new Airborne Infectious Disease Exposure Prevention Standard, a Model Airborne Infectious Disease Exposure Prevention Plan, and various industry-specific model plans for prevention of airborne infectious disease.
As detailed in our prior advisories, the HERO Act mandates new workplace health and safety protections in response to the COVID-19 pandemic with the purpose of protecting employees against exposure and disease during a future airborne infectious disease outbreak.
Industry-Specific Model Plans
In addition to a general model prevention plan, the NYDOL released industry-specific model prevention plans for the following industries:
Employer Action Item
Employers can choose to adopt the applicable model plan provided by the NYDOL or establish an alternative plan that meets or exceeds the standard's minimum requirements. The prevention plans must go into effect when an airborne infectious disease is designated by the New York State Commissioner of Health as a highly contagious communicable disease that presents a serious risk of harm to the public health.
As of the publishing of this advisory, no such designation has been made for COVID-19 or any other airborne infectious disease. However, employers must still adopt a prevention plan within 30 days, as required by the law, in case there is an airborne infectious disease designation in the future.
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