By Molly Hulsey, mhulsey@scbiznews.com
Published August 9, 2021 in GSA Business Report
Excerpt featuring QBS Loss Control Experts Scott Black & Ramon Serrano:
“Businesses are more in tune now with the wellbeing of their employees,” QBS Loss Control Consultant Ramon Serrano told GSA Business Report. “Some businesses [didn’t] even know who OSHA is or what they do.”
Now, businesses can’t help but know. Their workforce and survival is on the line.
[…]
As the regulations now stand, Scott Black, another loss control expert with QBS, has seen that workplace air quality tends to rank high on the list of unexpected yet damnatory liabilities.
“Indoor air quality has been a challenge for businesses way before COVID ever came into play,” he said. “An employee has the right to a safe work environment, and they also have the right to let OSHA know they don’t think they have a safe work environment. And a lot of the time, that can be [that] an industrial hygienist hasn’t come in to do air quality testing.”
HVAC systems have received renewed attention recently, Black said, as have disinfectant teams like SimplySterile and additional after-hour cleaning services. Large-scale industrial employers have invested in temperature readers utilizing facial recognition technology and installed them as a permanent feature at their front entrance.
At the end of the day — or perhaps more accurately, at the beginning — best practices for infection control (and protection from OSHA complaints) really boils down to the type of industry on the hot seat, according to Serrano and Black.
“The best advice we can give our clients, and it’s on a case-by-case basis of what they’re working on or what they’re doing, is lead them toward ‘these are the regulations for your state. This is what you’re supposed to do. Let’s work together to develop it and make it work for what you have.'” Serrano said.
Link to read the full story here: https://issuu.com/scbiz/docs/gsa_080921/8
