As employers will recall, earlier this year President Biden announced a six-prong COVID-19 Action Plan, which, among other things, required all employers with 100 or more employees to ensure that their workers are vaccinated or periodically tested for COVID-19. Today, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (“OSHA”) issued an Emergency Temporary Standard (the “ETS”) implementing this requirement. Although the ETS imposes a variety of obligations on covered employers, most notably, employers with 100 or more employees are required to either establish a mandatory written vaccination policy for employees, or alternatively establish a written policy whereby unvaccinated employees submit to weekly COVID-19 testing and wear face coverings in the workplace.
Under the ETS, employees must either be fully vaccinated by January 4, 2022, or be subject to the testing requirements discussed below at that time. Other aspects of the ETS, including but not limited to the written policy requirement, face covering requirement, and the additional leave for vaccination and recovery from vaccine side effects, go into effect December 6, 2021.
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