OSHA Announces Enforcement of Emergency Standard Requiring Vaccination or Testing – but Further Stay Is Sought
December 20, 2021
OSHA’s Emergency Temporary Standard on COVID-19 Vaccination and Testing (ETS) is now in effect. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit reinstated the OSHA ETS (which had previously been stayed by the Fifth Circuit) on December 17, 2021. OSHA then announced that for employers making reasonable, good faith efforts to comply with the ETS, it would not begin enforcing: (1) all ETS requirements other than testing until January 10, 2022, and (2) the ETS testing requirement for unvaccinated employees until February 9, 2022.
As explained in our November 8, 2021, ETS Alert, the ETS requires employers with 100 or more employees to develop and implement a policy requiring that employees either become fully vaccinated or undergo weekly testing and wear a face covering at work. The ETS also requires employers to determine and document each employee’s vaccination status, provide paid time to employees to become vaccinated and reasonable time and paid sick leave to recover from any side effects, remove employees from the workplace who test positive or are diagnosed with COVID-19 and report COVID-19 fatalities and hospitalizations to OSHA. Under the ETS, employers were initially required to comply with all requirements other than testing by December 6, with the testing requirement to be met by January 4, 2022. As noted herein, these dates have changed for employers making good faith efforts to comply.
