By Ruth Kiefer, Vice President of Loss Control, MSc, ARM

As the days continue, and COVID-19 is still here, so should your commitment of keeping your employees safe during this time. Employee complaints to MIOSHA have exponentially increased and they are out in force checking up on the employers. If you are lucky enough to get a knock at the door and see a smiling MiOSHA inspector standing there, you must let them in. Have them follow your COVID-19 visitor requirements of signing in, answering a health screening, and maybe even take their temperature, if that is in your written program. Please know, that temperature taking is currently not required by any of the issued Executive Orders(EO). We are on EO-175, at the time I am writing this article. Once the MIOSHA inspector has followed your sign-in protocols, you will need to escort them to your conference room, where they will ask to talk to your designated representative who is responsible for your COVID-19 Response & Preparedness Plan, if this person is not on site, you must have a second designated person, as required by your plan, who is also in charge of the program. This is called redundancy and there must be a person on site who is familiar with your plan in case there is an employee that has a question or who thinks they are sick.

The inspector will then sit down and review your program and documentation with your designated person. I highly suggest that you incorporate any memo’s, letters, or other communications that you posted during the beginning of this event in the back of your plan. I would also keep your training materials and sign-in sheets, along with your old health screening logs in this book as well. This will impress the inspector because it appears you are organized and on top of things. This effort will make the inspection of your facility a more pleasurable experience. If you are using N95s as part of your normal business practice, have your respirator protection plan at hand as well, this must include your most recent fit-testing results and medical questionnaire of the employees who are in the program.

Once the inspector has completed a review of your written program, it’s now time to see if you walk the talk. This is where the rubber hits the road, he or she will know if you follow the plan you have written or have slipped in your management of your COVID-19 plan. They will also be looking for the usual top 25 things they always look for, guarding, electrical, and other safety items. Their focus of this visit, is most likely a complaint by an employee, so they will be looking at you through COVID-19 glasses, how are your work stations spaced, what PPE have you provided, have you increased sanitation stations, are you cleaning more frequently, have you posted the required signs, and are you properly spacing start times, break times, and adhering to checking in your employees when they start work.

It’s a lot, I know. My team and I have been out in force trying to get you ready for this very moment when you hear the knock and see the smiling inspector. We want to prepare you before they get to your door, we want to make sure you are all set and don’t even break a sweat when you see him or her at your door. You can say, “I’ve got this, I have MTMIC Loss Control.” The first step, if you feel you’re not ready for this knock on the door, is to reach out to your Loss Control Representative, and we will help you get your team ready for this visit. In the meantime, let’s play the game, and hopefully the end zone is rushing towards us so we can get back to business as usual. Unless you’re a Lions fan, then well… we can just have hope in our hearts. Be Safe.