OSHA COVID Vaccination Mandate Coming?

by Jeff Price

From Gary Auman @ Auman, Mahan and Furry

As I write this article on October 31st , I feel that many employers feel they are being tricked rather than treated on this Halloween. On or about September 9 th the president directed OSHA to promulgate an Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS) to mandate COVID vaccines for every employer that employs 100 or more people. From what I have read, a draft of the ETS was delivered to the White House several weeks ago. It has rested there since then. What concerns me is the fact that OSHA and the Administration has this ETS under a cloak of secrecy. It appears that it is being protected more closely than our most sensitive defense measures. What is so secret about this ETS? What does the Administration not want you to know about? As I write this article, I cannot report on the status of this ETS, but I can tell you that a number of states (I have heard as many as 24) have indicated that they intend to challenge any mandatory vaccination standard in court. Several governors have stated that they will file for a temporary injunction to stop the enforcement of any mandatory vaccination standard issued by OSHA. Some governors have directed their state agencies to not comply with any federal vaccination mandate.

So, at this point all we can do is speculate and that is not something I like to do. All we know is what we have seen in the president’s direction to OSHA and that is to develop an ETS that will require companies with one hundred or more employees to require all employees to be vaccinated or to weekly test each employee not vaccinated for COVID. The implication is that companies will have to pay for the testing as well as for the time an employee will have to be away from work to be tested. Beyond this I feel we are in a wait and see mode. We will review and synopsize any ETS when it is issued and get an analysis out to our members as soon as possible. Until we see the ETS you need to comply with existing guidance, which we have discussed in previous articles and webinars.