UPDATE 1/13/2022: The Supreme Court blocked the proposed COVID vaccine mandate for large businesses on January 13.
UPDATE 11/6/2021: On Saturday, Nov. 6, a federal appeals panel in Louisiana temporarily blocked the COVID vaccine mandate for large businesses. The next step is for the court to decide whether to lift the temporary stay (meaning the mandate would go into effect as scheduled) or issue a permanent injunction. Either way, the case is likely to move up through the court system. ACRA will provide updates as needed.
On Thursday, the White House announced two new vaccine requirements, including one for employers with 100 or more employees.
Under the new rule, officially an Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS) promulgated by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), covered employers will be required to ensure their employees are vaccinated against COVID-19 by January 4, 2022, and require unvaccinated workers to produce a negative test on a weekly basis. Employers will be required to “remove from the workplace any employee who receives a positive COVID-19 test or is diagnosed with COVID-19 by a licensed health care provider.”
The ETS also requires covered employers to provide paid time off for employees to get vaccinated and sick leave to recover from any side effects from the vaccine, and requires that unvaccinated employees wear masks. These two requirements kick in on December 4, 2021.
Employers will not have to pay for the COVID tests for unvaccinated employees. The ETS also outlines reporting requirements for employers to demonstrate compliance.
The second requirement released by the Biden administration yesterday relates to health care workers at facilities participating in Medicare and Medicaid are fully vaccinated.
The new ETS impacting employers with 100 or more employees comes on the heels of rules issued in late September covering federal contractors. In order to avoid confusion for employers who are covered by both the contractor rules and the new rules for large employers, the ETS announced yesterday extends the deadline for employees of federal contractors to be fully vaccinated to Jan. 4.
For more information on the new rules, including FAQs, see OSHA’s resource page and stay tuned to ACRASphere for updates as needed.