Businesses with at least 100 employees may soon receive direction on an anticipated COVID-19 workplace vaccination and testing mandate from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). On Oct. 12, the agency sent its emergency temporary standard (ETS) to the White House for final review.
President Announces Plan
On Sept. 9, President Joe Biden announced that OSHA would issue an ETS requiring covered businesses to mandate that their workers be vaccinated against the coronavirus or undergo weekly testing. Covered employers will also have to give workers paid time off to get vaccinated or recover from any side effects of getting vaccinated. Employers that don’t comply with the vaccine mandate or paid-time-off requirement may face fines of up to $14,000 per violation. The rule will impact more than 80 million workers, according to the White House.
