The debate comes as the Labor Department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration has come under fire from critics for not issuing more worker safety regulations guiding businesses on what they’re supposed to do to protect workers and customers.
Part of the problems facing both employers and workers, labor and business leaders agreed at the hearing, is that there are no clear standards for what businesses are supposed to do.
Under liability law, businesses are freed from being responsible if they are deemed to be taking reasonable steps to protect people. But as the nation continues to struggle to find a way to stem the spread of coronavirus, there is no definition of what steps would protect colleges from being held legally liable.