On April 15, 2020, Puerto Rico’s Secretary of the Department of Labor and Human Resources issued guidance discussing the basic elements employers are required to include in their plans to limit employee exposure to COVID-19 in compliance with Puerto Rico’s Safety and Health in Employment Act (PROSHA). The guidance first clarifies that the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has established a hierarchy of controls to limit workplace risks: elimination of risk, substitution of risk, engineering controls, administrative/practical controls and, lastly, personal protection equipment (PPE). Every employer is responsible for evaluating the risks in their particular workplace and for establishing the adequate controls of risk needed. After completing the evaluation, the employer must then implement the corresponding controls in the hierarchical order OSHA established.
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