{"id":1139,"date":"2021-09-22T12:30:00","date_gmt":"2021-09-22T16:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/caloshadefensereport.com\/?p=1139"},"modified":"2026-03-15T16:51:50","modified_gmt":"2026-03-15T16:51:50","slug":"qas-about-fed-oshas-new-covid-19-vaccine-mandate-emergency-rulemaking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.connmaciel.com\/calosha-defense-report\/qas-about-fed-oshas-new-covid-19-vaccine-mandate-emergency-rulemaking\/","title":{"rendered":"Q&As About Fed OSHA\u2019s New COVID-19 Vaccine-Mandate Emergency Rulemaking"},"content":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0<\/em>Conn Maciel Carey\u2019s COVID-19 Taskforce<\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Last Thursday, September 9th<\/sup>, President Biden announced that he is\u00a0directing OSHA to issue a new Emergency Temporary Standard<\/a>\u00a0(ETS) that would require many employers to provide paid time for employees to get and recover from getting vaccinated and to implement \u201csoft\u201d vaccine mandates; i.e., require employees either to be fully vaccinated or get weekly COVID-19 testing, as well as issuing new Executive Orders requiring federal contractors to implement \u201chard\u201d vaccine mandates.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>While we anticipated OSHA would reconsider the need for a broader COVID-19 ETS applicable beyond just the healthcare sector in light of the impact of the Delta variant, President Biden\u2019s decision to use a new ETS focused on vaccinations and testing as a central element of his newly unveiled\u00a0Path Out of the Pandemic \u2013 COVID-19 Action Plan<\/a>\u00a0raises a host of challenges for employers across the country.\u00a0 To help our clients and friends in industry prepare for and navigate this emergency rulemaking, we have prepared an\u00a0extensive list of Q&As<\/a>\u00a0about OSHA\u2019s Emergency Rulemaking for a COVID-19 Vaccine-Mandate ETS.\u00a0 Also, here are links to an\u00a0article we prepared summarizing OSHA\u2019s new emergency rulemaking<\/a>, a\u00a0recording of the webinar about the ETS<\/a>\u00a0we conducted last week, and the\u00a0slides we used<\/a>.<\/p>\n

We understand from our contacts at OSHA that the agency will move much more quickly to prepare and send this ETS to the White House, so it is imperative that the employer community come together now to identify shared concerns and considerations and begin advocating to OSHA and OMB so that this new ETS is one with which industry can reasonably manage.\u00a0 To that end, Conn Maciel Carey LLP is\u00a0organizing a coalition of employers and trade groups to advocate for the most reasonable fed OSHA COVID-19 emergency rule focused on vaccination and testing possible<\/em><\/strong>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

For several reasons, we believe this emergency rulemaking may be the OSHA rulemaking that has the most opportunity for industry influence that we can recall.\u00a0 First, <\/span>the career staff at OSHA did not know the President\u2019s announcement was coming, so there was no foundational work on a draft rule before last week.\u00a0 Being at such an early stage of drafting means they are less dug in on any particular terms, and there is genuine opportunity to have our concerns, considerations, and recommendations heard.\u00a0 Second, a big reason the Administration is issuing this ETS is to give cover to employers who have wanted to set vaccine mandates, but were reluctant to do it unless or until other similarly situated employers did the same; i.e., we have all been worried about losing our workers to neighboring businesses that had more relaxed COVID-19 policies.\u00a0 Since the rulemaking is, in large part, a response to Industry\u2019s request to the Administration to provide this cover, we think the White House will be open to specific input from Industry about how best to implement it.\u00a0 Finally, unlike the Executive Orders for federal employees and contractors and an expanded scope of healthcare workers, which included a fair amount of detail about how they would be implemented, the President\u2019s announcement and new Action Plan about the OSHA ETS for private industry are essentially bare bones.\u00a0 There is almost no detail about what\/how the ETS will operate.\u00a0 It does not specify any of the following factors, that we intend to address through our coalition:<\/p>\n