Virginia’s Covid-19 Worker Safety Rule Seen as National Model

Industry attorneys increasingly point to Virginia’s permanent rule protecting workers from on-the-job Covid-19 infections as an ideal model for a nationwide emergency regulation.

Several provisions in Virginia’s standard, the first permanent occupational safety regulation in the U.S. to address virus-related hazards, make it preferable for employers compared with California’s temporary rule, said Karen Tynan, a shareholder with Ogletree Deakins in Sacramento, Calif.

Tynan and other management-side attorneys say the Virginia rule could provide a template for an emergency temporary standard from the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration because it’s a far less rigid framework. Virginia’s model set ...