OSHA says employers should follow the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) new COVID-19 guidance exempting fully vaccinated people from many infection-control measures like masking and social distancing when deciding what is “appropriate to protect fully vaccinated workers,” and plans to soon update its own guide.
Employers are pressing OSHA to soften its planned COVID-19 emergency temporary standard (ETS) by citing the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) new guidance loosening mask mandates and other requirements for fully vaccinated people, saying it undermines prior calls for strict workplace mandates.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has unveiled new COVID-19 guidance that allows “fully vaccinated” individuals to avoid wearing masks or socially distancing in many settings, just as employers are urging OSHA to include similar language in its upcoming emergency temporary standard (ETS).
Attorneys representing employers and industry groups say draft revisions to California OSHA’s (Cal/OSHA) COVID-19 emergency temporary standard (ETS) represent a “big improvement” over the current rules, including easing some requirements covering what constitutes exposure, notification requirements and testing obligations.
An OSHA enforcement official says the agency is working with the Department of Labor’s Office of the Solicitor (SOL) on policies for considering vaccinated workers’ status as it implements its COVID-19 national emphasis program (NEP), with delegated states slated to decide soon on whether to adopt the federal enforcement plan.
As the White House continues to weigh OSHA’s emergency temporary standard (ETS) for COVID-19, several states are adapting their emergency pandemic rules for long-term use, including moves by California regulators to loosen requirements for vaccinated workers and by Oregon to retain that state’s once-temporary standard indefinitely.
OSHA is marking the 50th anniversary of its 1971 founding by touting its imminent emergency temporary standard (ETS) for COVID-19 and its plans to boost enforcement related to the pandemic, while Democratic lawmakers are using the occasion to ready their latest push to overhaul and tighten the OSH Act.
OSHA has sent its COVID-19 emergency temporary standard (ETS) rule for White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) review, more than six weeks after President Joe Biden’s deadline for the ETS that observers expect will take effect within weeks and could include tiered mandates for specific industries.
Congress is stepping up its focus on the Biden administration’s worker protection policies, with senators advancing the nomination of Julie Su to be Deputy Labor Secretary while members of a key House subcommittee plan a hearing on OSHA’s development of an emergency temporary standard (ETS) for COVID-19.
OSHA says employees’ negative reactions to the COVID-19 vaccine are “work-related” and thus subject to recordkeeping and reporting mandates if an employer “requires” the vaccination, a definition the agency says it will read broadly to include any workplace where unvaccinated workers face “adverse action.”