News Contractor at Work
OSHA’s COVID-19 safety resources available in English, Spanish

In many states and provinces, agricultural drainage is considered an essential service and allowed to continue during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. It is important that employers ensure the safety of their workforce and larger communities by following best practices laid out by health authorities.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has an entire resource web page for COVID-19, found on osha.gov/coronavirus. OSHA has also released an online resource, Guidance on Preparing Workplaces for COVID-19, including a more specific one-page guidance for construction workers, which is found in its list of publications and also available in Spanish.

The resource lists the following guidelines for those working in construction, and by extension, land improvement:

• Encourage workers to stay home if they are sick
• Allow workers to wear masks, in addition to their normal personal protective equipment (PPE)
• Encourage respiratory etiquette, such as covering coughs and sneezes
• Advise workers to avoid physical contact with others and to increase personal space to at least six feet where possible
• Promote personal hygiene and provide alcohol-based hand rubs containing at least 60 percent alcohol if workers don’t have access to soap and water
• To the extent tools or equipment must be shared, provide and instruct workers to use alcohol-based wipes to clean tools before and after use

For Canadian contractors, visit Canada.ca/coronavirus or your province’s health authority for the most up to date guidelines.