New York State employers are no longer required to implement their workforce safety plans. The NYS Department of Health removed the designation of COVID-19 as a serious risk to public health on March 17. As a reminder, employers need to have a HERO Act ready to go, but it can be put on the shelf when a public health threat is not identified by New York State.

See notice from NYS Department of Health below:

NYS HERO ACT

The New York Health and Essential Rights Act (NY HERO Act) was signed into law on May 5, 2021. The law mandates extensive new workplace health and safety protections in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The purpose of the NY HERO Act is to protect employees against exposure and disease during a future airborne infectious disease outbreak.

Under this law, the New York State Department of Labor (NYS DOL), in consultation with the NYS Department of Health, has developed an Airborne Infectious Disease Exposure Prevention Standard, a Model Airborne Infectious Disease Exposure Prevention Plan, and various industry-specific model plans for the prevention of airborne infectiousdisease. Employers can choose to adopt the applicable policy template/plan provided by NYS DOL or establish an alternative plan that meets or exceeds the standard’s minimum requirements.

The airborne infectious disease exposure prevention plans must go into effect when an airborne infectious disease is designated by the New York State Commissioner of Health as a highly contagious communicable disease that presents a serious risk of harm to the public health. When designated, employers are required to provide a copy of the adopted airborne infectious disease exposure prevention plan and post the same in a visible and prominent location within each worksite. Templates and resources are available below.

On March 17, 2022, the designation of COVID-19 as an airborne infectious disease that presents a serious risk of harm to the public health under the HERO Act ended. Private sector employers are no longer required to implement their workforce safety plans.

Inquiries about the HERO Act can be emailed to Airborne.Infectious.Diseases@labor.ny.gov.

For more information: https://dol.ny.gov/ny-hero-act

With the widespread cases of the COVID-19 Omicron variant, some farm employers have had difficulty staffing regular operations due to employees in quarantine. In many cases, the employees are asymptomatic and would like to be back at work. New York Department of Health recently released: “Advisory on Shortening Isolation Period for Certain Fully Vaccinated Healthcare Workers and Other Critical Workforce.” Farm employees and other agricultural workers are included in the “critical workforce,” this means that fully vaccinated and asymptomatic individuals can return to work after 5 days of quarantine rather than the 10 that was formerly required. Read the NYSDOH Advisory for full details.

Specialty crop growers and many processors are eligible to apply for federal grant funding to cover the costs of pandemic-related improvements to prevent the spread of COVID. This includes improvements to worker housing.

See the post from CCE’s Elizabeth Higgins below and join her for an informational webinar tonight, October 13^th (Wednesday) at 6:30 pm.  To register go to https://cornell.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_p2QHV1wPQbeJIt8ufrgLgA.

If your farm or food business is an SBA “small business” you may be eligible for funding for grants to help you respond to coronavirus.

Elizabeth Higgins, Ag Business Management Extension Specialist

The recently announced USDA Pandemic Response and Safety (PRS) Grant Program provides grants between $1,500 to $20,000 to farmers of eligible commodities[1][2], businesses that provide post-harvest packing and sorting of specialty crops, food processors/manufacturers (including meat slaughter and processing), food wholesalers (including food hubs), all farmers markets, and businesses offering refrigerated warehousing and storage of food products to respond to coronavirus, including for measures to protect workers against COVID-19.   This is the link to the website for the program Pandemic Response and Safety Grant Program – usda (grantsolutions.gov).

Important Dates:

• Application period opens October 6, 2021
• Application period closes at 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time on November 22, 2021
• All applications submitted before the deadline will be considered for funding. Applications will not be reviewed on a first come, first served basis.

What is eligible for funding?

The grant covers:

1. Workplace Safety Measures: Workplace safety measures, including, but not limited to, personal protective equipment, sanitizer, hand washing stations, air filters, thermometers, cleaning supplies, or similar items.
2. Market Pivots: Market pivots such as transition to virtual/online sales costs (online platform development and fees, online marketing, credit card processing fees), supplies, new signage.
3. Retrofitting Facilities: Retrofitting facilities for worker and consumer safety (plexiglass, walk up windows, heat lamps, fans, tents, propane, weights, tables, chairs).
4. Transportation: Additional transportation costs incurred to maintain social distancing.
5. Worker Housing: Additional worker housing costs incurred to maintain social distancing or to allow for quarantining of new or exposed employees.
6. Medical: Unreimbursed costs associated with providing or enabling vaccinations, testing, or healthcare treatment of infected employees, including any paid leave.

You may request funds for costs already incurred and/or anticipated costs. The costs must be associated with eligible activities/outcomes implemented between January 27, 2020, and December 31, 2021. Funds will be sent as a single payment at the time of award.

 What should you do to be ready to apply?

Applicants will be required to obtain a DUNS Number from Dun & Bradstreet (D&B) prior to applying for this program. D&B has created a custom landing page to streamline this process. Visit the application website (https://usda-ars.grantsolutions.gov/) for more information.  DO THIS ASAP!

Are You Eligible?

USDA is focusing this first round of funding on 1) certain small sized producers, 2) food processors and distributors that meet small business size standards, and 3) farmers markets . The determination as to whether a farm is an SBA small business is different than USDA definitions for a small farm.  For example, a small apple farm is a farm whose revenue is $5,000,000/year or less over a 3 year average.

Check whether your farm or business is a “small business” using this link.  Eligibility Info – usda (grantsolutions.gov).  This eligibility link also lists the eligible business types for this round of funding.

What if I am Not Eligible?

USDA is focusing this first round of funding on certain commodities due to the unique impacts of the pandemic on their businesses. According to the website, USDA may expand eligibility in future rounds of funding to include additional businesses not covered by the first round. Future rounds are dependent upon availability of funds.

What if I have more than one type of eligible business (e.g. a farm and a packing house), can I apply for more than one grant?

If the operations are registered as separate business entities with unique DUNS numbers and meet the PRS eligibility requirements, then each entity may apply for PRS funding.

For More Information

I will have a program on applying for this program on October 13^th (Wednesday) at 6:30 pm.  To register go to https://cornell.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_p2QHV1wPQbeJIt8ufrgLgA.

For more information contact me (Liz Higgins) emh56@cornell.edu.

[1] Eligible Crops: Dry Pea and Bean Farming; Vegetables; Fruit (including tree fruit and grapes), Tree Nuts; Mushrooms, Food Crops Grown Under Cover; Nursery and Tree Production.

[2] Aquaculture and Apiculture