The COVID Project
The record
- Jurisdiction
- West Virginia
- Level
- State
- Authority
- W. Va. Code § 21-3-1
- Issued
- 2026-09-29 Sept. 29, 2026
- Effective
- In force throughout 2020 Q2 to 2021 Q3 (read as 2026-09-29)
- End
- standing
- In force
- Standing since Sept. 29, 2026 (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 dutyOperating condition
- Addressees
- employers (every employer in the State, public and private, other than coal-mining operations excepted by § 21-3-14); owners of places of employment, places of public assembly and public buildings
- Character
- workplace duty
- Collection
- Standing duties: West Virginia DUT-WV
Operative words
Every employer shall furnish employment which shall be reasonably safe... and shall do every other thing reasonably necessary to protect the life, health, safety, and welfare of such employees:... 'safe' or 'safety'... shall include... conditions and methods of sanitation and hygiene reasonably necessary for the protection of the life, health, safety, or welfare of employees or the public.
Penalty
Misdemeanor under W. Va. Code § 21-3-14: fine of $10 to $50 or imprisonment up to six months, or both, 'for each such offense; and each day such violation... continues shall be deemed a separate offense,' recoverable alternatively as a civil penalty (Ex. DUT-WV-012)
What it required
Every employer to furnish reasonably safe employment, to 'adopt and use methods and processes reasonably adequate to render employment and the place of employment safe,' and to 'do every other thing reasonably necessary to protect the life, health, safety, and welfare' of employees, 'safe' being defined to include 'conditions and methods of sanitation and hygiene' protecting 'employees or the public'; every 'owner of a place of employment, place of public assembly, or a public building' to 'construct, repair and maintain the same as to render it reasonably safe'; the Commissioner of Labor to 'make, modify, repeal, and enforce reasonable general orders' for the prevention of accidents.
Retrieval noteWest Virginia has no approved State OSHA plan for private employers; the federal general duty clause, 29 U.S.C. § 654(a)(1) (Ex. DUT-AL-009, cross-referenced as DUT-WV-031), and federal OSHA's COVID-19 guidance and, from June 21, 2021, the Healthcare ETS (29 C.F.R. § 1910.502) governed private-sector workplaces alongside this section. The section's express extension of 'safe' to 'sanitation and hygiene' protecting 'employees or the public' reaches every distancing, sanitation, screening and face-covering measure a West Virginia employer adopted.