On September 9, 2021, the Biden administration announced that the Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is developing a rule that will require all employers with 100 or more employees to ensure their workforce is fully vaccinated or require any unvaccinated employees to produce a weekly negative COVID-19 test result before coming into work. On October 12th, OSHA sent its emergency temporary standard (ETS) to the White House for review.
What We Know
October 12th, the ETS was sent to the White House for review. President Biden has asked for an expedited regulatory review process. Once the process has been reviewed and approved, OSHA can publish the ETS.
What We Don’t Know
The regulatory review process can be a lengthy process, sometimes taking months to complete. Even with President Biden’s request to expedite the process, we do not know how long it will take. Once the review is complete, OSHA could immediately push the ETS into effect or provide businesses with more time to prepare by announcing a future date.
Questions Remain
Last month, in our article Breaking down the Path Out of the Pandemic COVID-19 Action Plan, we highlighted a number of unanswered questions. To date, these questions still remain as the proposed ETS was not shared with the public. Resourcing Edge will continue to monitor the status of the ETS, providing you with up-to-date information as soon as possible.
- Is Your Business Unwittingly Providing Job Insecurity? - September 28, 2023
- Is Being Open on Holidays Worth It - May 25, 2023
- HR Benefits you should be offering in 2023 - April 27, 2023