U.S. companies with 100 or more employees must make sure
their workforce is fully vaccinated against Covid-19 or see that they test
negative for the virus at least once per week, according to rules issued by the
Occupational Safety and Health Administration on Thursday.
OSHA’s emergency temporary standard follows through on a
mandate set
forth in a set of executive orders by U.S. President Joe Biden in
September. The rules affect more than 80 million workers in the U.S., and OSHA
estimates it will result in about 23 million people becoming vaccinated who have
not already.
“Vaccination is the single best pathway out of this
pandemic,” Biden said in a statement. “While I would have much
preferred that requirements not become necessary, too many people remain
unvaccinated for us to get out of this pandemic for good.”
The requirement, naturally, will have implications for
corporate travel. While the emergency standard does not apply to employees
working from home or who do not otherwise report to a workplace where other
employees are present, they would have to provide negative test documentation
if reporting to an office, even for a simple task such as attending a meeting
or printing documents, according to Keith Wilkes, labor and employment partner
and shareholder at national law firm Hall Estill.
“Covered employers have a long laundry list of legal
requirements to accomplish and prepare for in the next four weeks, [including] implementing
a mandatory mask policy for employees who are not fully vaccinated by Dec. 5,
2021, and begin requiring unvaccinated employees to wear face masks in the
workplace,” according to Wilkes.
Employers are not required to cover employee testing costs,
per the standard.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services also issued
a rule on Thursday requiring U.S. healthcare workers to be vaccinated.
Companies that contract with the federal government—which include the major
U.S. airlines—already
are facing an employee vaccination requirement with the deadline of Dec. 8.
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