This morning, the Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issued the COVID-19 Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS) to implement President Biden’s mandate that employers with 100 or more workers require employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19 or undergo weekly testing.
The implementation of the vaccine and testing mandate will impact more than 84 million workers in private sector businesses nationally.
- Employees must be fully vaccinated by January 4, 2022, and employers must require unvaccinated employees to mask and produce a negative test on at least a weekly basis.• Employers are required to have a written vaccination policy.
- The OSHA ETS does not apply to employees who do not report to a workplace where there are other individuals such as coworkers or customers are present; employees working from home; or employees who work exclusively outdoors.
- The OSHA ETS does not require employers to provide or pay for tests.
- Employers must pay employees for the time it takes to get vaccinated.
- Employers must ensure all unvaccinated employees are masked.
- Employers must report COVID-19 fatalities and hospitalizations to OSHA.
- The OSHA ETS reaffirms that employers must provide reasonable accommodations.
- According to the Department of Labor, vaccine, testing and face-covering requirements preempt inconsistent state and local requirements.