The COVID Project
The record
- Jurisdiction
- Wisconsin
- Level
- State
- Authority
- Wis. Stat. ch. 101, subch. I (Regulation of Industry, Buildings and Safety)
- Effective
- standing
- End
- standing (read as 2021-09-30)
- In force
- Standing (a statutory duty; in force throughout the six quarters)
- Quarters
- 2020 Q22020 Q32020 Q42021 Q12021 Q22021 Q3
2020 Q22020 Q32020 Q42021 Q12021 Q22021 Q3
- Limitation types
- Workplace rulesStanding duty
- Addressees
- employers (every employer, public and private); owners of places of employment and public buildings; 'other person[s]' who construct, occupy or maintain a place of employment (sub. (2)(a))
- Character
- workplace duty
- Collection
- Standing duties: Wisconsin DUT-WI
Operative words
Every employer shall furnish employment which shall be safe for the employees therein and shall furnish a place of employment which shall be safe for employees therein and for frequenters thereof... and shall do every other thing reasonably necessary to protect the life, health, safety, and welfare of such employees and frequenters.
Penalty
§ 101.02(13)(a) (DUT-WI-012): forfeiture of not less than $10 nor more than $100 for each offense for violating the subchapter, failing to perform any duty under it or disobeying a DSPS order; DSPS orders and inspections under § 101.02; the section is the duty enforced in Wisconsin negligence actions by employees and frequenters.
What it required
Every Wisconsin employer, and every owner of a place of employment or public building, owed employees and 'frequenters' (customers, patients, vendors and every other person lawfully on the premises) a place 'safe' within § 101.01(13) and was bound to 'do every other thing reasonably necessary to protect the life, health, safety, and welfare' of both classes; sub. (2)(a) forbids an employer to 'require, permit or suffer any employee to go or be in any employment or place of employment which is not safe' and to 'fail or neglect to do every other thing reasonably necessary.'
Retrieval noteThe statute had no COVID-19 content of its own; what a 'safe' place of employment required in 2020 and 2021 was supplied by DHS (DUT-WI-016), WEDC (DUT-WI-015), CDC and the health officers' orders. The duty to frequenters reaches the sales floor, dining room, waiting room and lobby, not only the back of house. Sub. (1) second sentence binds owners: 'Every employer and every owner of a place of employment or a public building... shall so construct, repair or maintain such place of employment or public building as to render the same safe.'.