I. Introduction
Today, less than two months after receiving the directive from President Biden, OSHA released its Emergency Temporary Standard that will affect two-thirds of the nation’s private workforce.
While most of the 490-page document includes detailed legal and scientific discussion (presumably in an effort to pre-empt expected legal challenges), the 15 or so pages
On September 24, 2021, the Biden Administration’s Safer Federal Workforce Task Force issued Covid-19 workplace safety guidance for federal contractors and subcontractors. The 14-page guidance provides that “covered contractor employees” must be fully vaccinated by December 8, 2021, unless a religious or medical exemption applies. There is no testing option for employees who choose not
On Thursday September 9, 2021, President Biden outlined a multi-pronged plan to reduce the number of unvaccinated Americans in the United States, among other COVID-related initiatives. In addition to issuing an Executive Order implementing vaccination requirements for federal workers and requiring vaccinations for healthcare workers, President Biden also directed The Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety
Almost immediately after the FDA issued full approval of the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine earlier this week, employers began rolling out mandatory vaccination policies. These policies are raising a variety of legal and practical questions for employers, including whether employers are required to compensate employees for time spent getting the vaccine.
Although the answer to this
Today OSHA updated its previously issued “Guidance on Mitigating and Preventing the Spread of COVID-19 in the Workplace.” The updates focus on: 1) helping employers protect unvaccinated workers (including those who are only partially vaccinated) or otherwise at risk (including those who are immunocompromised; and 2) implementing new guidance involving fully-vaccinated workers located in areas
On Thursday, June 10, 2021, OSHA released its long awaited COVID-19 Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS). Despite beliefs that the ETS would address all workplace settings, it only addresses workplace safety in the health care industry. Answers to the key questions regarding the ETS are outlined below:
Who does the ETS apply to?
The ETS
The EEOC issued significant new guidance today covering workplace COVID-19 vaccination policies and practices. Click Here to View. The EEOC’s new guidance answers several of the frequently asked questions about COVID-19 vaccination policies.
Some of the most notable answers in the new EEOC guidance include the following:
On May 13, 2021, the CDC issued new guidance that, in non-health care settings, “fully vaccinated people no longer need to wear a mask or physically distance in any setting, except where required by federal, state, local, tribal, or territorial laws, rules, and regulations, including local business and workplace guidance.” The CDC considers people to
On April 15, Governor DeWine announced that more than 36 percent of Ohioans have now received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine – which is good news for returning to normalcy and work. However, we shouldn’t expect a return to normalcy over the next several weeks as Ohio’s statewide case incidence number has
At the beginning of the pandemic, many employers began to require employees to be screened for COVID-19 symptoms prior to starting work. Common screenings include daily temperature checks and symptom questionnaires, as well as questions about recent travel or recent exposure to COVID-19. Predictably, lawsuits have started to surface by employees alleging state and federal