January 8, 2021
Ms. Princy Doss
Director of Policy, Planning and Public Information
Virginia Department of Labor and Industry
600 East Main Street, Suite 207
Richmond, VA 23219
RE: Adoption of Permanent Standard for Infectious Disease Prevention SARS-CoV-2 Virus that Causes COVID-19, 16 VAC 25-220
Ms. Doss:
On behalf of the Virginia Restaurant, Lodging & Travel Association, we would like to take a moment to impart our organization’s comments regarding the Virginia Department of Labor and Industry’s (VDOLI) intent to adopt the emergency regulation for preventing COVID-19 in places of employment as a permanent standard.
While we appreciate some of our concerns were taken into consideration and included in this final version of the proposed permanent COVID-19 standard, we want to highlight the public safety measures being taken by the hospitality and tourism industry and why the proposed COVID-19 permanent standard should not be adopted, nor applied to restaurants, campgrounds, attractions, of lodging providers.
Hospitality and tourism related businesses have been working diligently to comply with COVID-19 related requirements from the Governor’s Executive Orders (EO), Virginia Department of Health (VDH), Virginia Department of Labor and Industry (VDOLI) and applicable federal requirements.
In fact, the hospitality and tourism industry has strived to protect the public and their staff throughout this public health epidemic. The American Hotel & Lodging Association created the Safe Stay program, and the National Restaurant Association developed the ServeSafe Dining Commitment/ COVID-19 trainings. Major hotel brands, including Marriott, Hilton, and others also have implemented rigorous cleaning protocols as well. These lessons were created in accordance with the guidance issued by public health authorities, including the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. Regrettably, VDOLI has failed to accept these hospitality industry specific education programs even after much encouragement from our industry to get these recognized as satisfying training and safety criteria of the ETS.
Our organization and industry supports clearly defined and predictable measures to address health and safety concerns related to COVID-19; however, we believe that adopting a permanent standard when the science and our knowledge of the virus are frequently changing and have been since the start of the pandemic will hinder the ability of our industry to adequately respond in a changing public health landscape on the issue.
The ETS was approved ostensibly to provide a means of ensuring employees and the public were protected during the temporary COVID-19 emergency; however, your agency is now seriously considering establishing these as permanent standards.
As we are seeing, COVID-19 vaccines and treatments have been developed and are now being deployed to the public. Therefore, it’s misguided to establish these requirements as a permanent standard that will be perennial. As a result, hospitality and tourism businesses will need to comply with these onerous regulations even after we have vaccinated our citizens against this virus.
As you may be aware, hospitality related businesses have been one of the most heavily impacted by COVID-19. These businesses have already been absorbing huge costs just to comply with existing requirements from VDH, EOs, CDC, and national trainings. Making the VDOLI standard permanent will place these businesses in a more precarious situation. We currently anticipate that almost 25% of restaurants in Virginia will permanently close, and these regulations will increase the rate of permanent closures.
Therefore, we believe that it’s imprudent to transition the ETS to a permanent standard, but should your agency move forward with making these standards permanent here are our suggestions:
We remain of the belief that hospitality related businesses that follow national health and safety procedures from AHLA, NRA, and ARVC should be exempt from the VDOLI regulations as these procedures were developed in accordance with CDC guidelines.
For these reasons, we strongly believe that the best approach is to not adopt the ETS as a permanent regulation. However, if you do promulgate them, we believe the adjustments outlined above will provide the means to address the public health issues pertinent to mitigating transmission of COVID-19.
Sincerely,
Eric Terry Robert Melvin
President Director, Government Affairs
Virginia Restaurant, Lodging & Travel Association Virginia Restaurant, Lodging & Travel Association