Itasca, IL — The National Safety Council has issued a statement urging President-elect Joe Biden to include an occupational safety expert on his COVID-19 task force.
“The business community has not had a pandemic roadmap to follow, and employers have struggled because of it,” NSC says in the statement. “Safety professionals have been thrust into roles for which they have limited training, resources and experience, and we owe them guidance for the next phase of the pandemic.”
NSC said it supports the experts already named to the task force but believes “the importance of having a workplace safety voice at the table alongside medical and health professionals cannot be overstated.”
The council points to SAFER: Safe Actions for Employee Returns – a task force launched in April by NSC and its partner organizations to help keep workers safe during and after the COVID-19 pandemic – but adds that “guidance from a federal task force could help immensely” in the creation of comprehensive employer guidelines.
