What President Biden’s “Path Out Of The Pandemic” means for you

On September 9, 2021, President Biden directed the Department of Labor to create a rule that will require all employers with 100 or more employees to ensure their workforce is fully vaccinated or require any unvaccinated workers to give their employers proof of negative test results on a weekly basis.?

A big departure from the incentives approach the administration had earlier in the year, this has the potential to have a large impact on citizens’ everyday life.?

What it means for you

As a result of this initiative, the Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is drafting a rule that will require all employers with 100 or more employees to ensure their workforce is fully vaccinated, or require any unvaccinated workers to produce a negative test on at least a weekly basis prior to attending work. If they do not produce this proof of negative results, and are not vaccinated, they will not be allowed back to work.?

OSHA is also drafting a rule which will require employers with more than 100 employees to provide paid time off for the time that employees take to get the vaccine and recover from it. If the prior OSHA mandate for private employers with 50 employees is any indication, there might be tax incentives for the companies who continue employee wages throughout that process.

If you are employed by a federal agency, a company that contracts with a federal agency, or a healthcare provider for the elderly, you have likely already received communications from your employer for vaccination status or regular testing. If you work for a private company that has more than 100 employees, you will likely be required to be vaccinated in order to work, or else bring with you a minimum of one negative test result every week.?

Additionally, if you are working for a federal program like Head Start, or a non-profit or private employer that benefits from federal program dollars, you will likely be required to be vaccinated as well.

What it means for your employer

Employers will now be responsible for knowing the status of their employees at all times, and keeping track of their status. Since this is an Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS), it would be mandatory that the employer keeps track of their follow through for as long as the measures are valid. This will be important because if someone contracts COVID-19 from work, and the employer does not have these records showing that they have complied with the mandate, then they have created an unsafe work environment by violating federal policies, and opens them up to potentially being fined by the government and sued by the individual who was exposed to the virus.?

If you have questions about COVID-19 protocols being put in place at your workplace, the implementation of mandatory policies, or an employer’s disregard for federal policies and best practices which could create an unsafe work environment, please reach out to the team at Liberty Trial Law Group to have your questions answered.