HERO Act Airborne Infectious Disease Designation Announced

New York State Governor Kathy Hochul issued a Labor Day news release designating COVID-19 as an Airborne Infectious Disease under New York State’s HERO Act. The Governor announced that the Commissioner of Health has designated COVID-19 a highly contagious communicable disease that presents a serious risk of harm to the public health under New York State’s HERO Act.

This designation immediately triggers the obligation of New York State employers to implement the workplace safety plans which they were required to draft and adopt in readiness for this development. The NY HERO Act mandated extensive new workplace health and safety protections in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The resurgence of the disease has now prompted this designation. Under the law, all employers are required to adopt a workplace safety plan and implement it for all airborne infectious diseases designated by the New York State Department of Health. The State has prepared its own model plans for use under the Act.  (Download the Model Plan for Manufacturing and Industrial manufacturing-and-industry-exposure-prevention-plan-p765g.) Employers are also free to develop their own plans which meet or exceed those State standards. We have previously reported on HERO Act developments here and here. State resources are available at: https://dol.ny.gov/ny-hero-act.

Clients with questions concerning the HERO Act, the new designation, or plan requirements should contact: Mike Dodd at mldodd@ferrarafirm.com or Nick Fiorenza at njfiorenza@ferrarafirm.com.

Tim Freeman, President
Print & Graphic Communications Association
Office: (716) 691-3211
Cell:  (716) 983-3826
tim@printcommunications.org