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President Biden is expected to ask the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to write a rule requiring all companies with 100 or more workers to require their employees to be vaccinated against the coronavirus or undergo mandatory weekly tests .
The efforts will mark the government’s biggest push to date to draw employers into efforts to immunize the country and would affect some 80 million workers.
OSHA will issue an emergency temporary standard to implement the requirement, which will impact more than 80 million workers, according to officials familiar with a larger plan the president is expected to present on Thursday.
The Biden administration also intends to require vaccination of federal contractors as well as 17 million healthcare workers in hospitals and other institutions that receive Medicare and Medicaid funds, officials said.
OSHA, which is part of the Department of Labor, oversees workplace safety, which it says likely extends to vaccination warrants. The agency released other guidelines for pandemic precautions, such as a rule in June requiring healthcare employers to provide protective equipment, ensure adequate ventilation and ensure social distancing, among other measures. .
“I think the Department of Labor is probably in a good position to be able to justify its mandate on the grounds of worker health and safety,” said Steve Bell, partner at the labor and labor law firm Dorsey & Whitney. use.
“They have a pretty solid basis to say, ‘We’re here to protect workers, and that’s part of our jurisdiction, and we think it’s something that will protect employees,” he said.
Yet OSHA’s authority does not mean it will not face a pushback or lawsuits challenging the order. And enforcement can be a challenge, especially since there is no national system for employers to track or report immunization status.
A number of large employers, ranging from CVS Health to Goldman Sachs to Chevron, have already implemented some form of vaccination warrant. Companies were eager to bring their employees back to the office and return to some degree of normalcy.
However, many of these mandates are not exhaustive. Companies like Walmart and Citigroup have mandates for their employees, but not for frontline workers in stores or branches. Many companies face labor shortages and varying levels of vaccine hesitancy among workers, and a number of states have proposed legislation that could limit the ability of workers to companies to impose vaccines for employees or customers.
Mr Biden has increased the pressure on private employers to help with vaccination efforts. In August, the White House met with executives of companies that had mandated the vaccination, including Scott Kirby of United Airlines, to discuss how they could encourage their fellow business leaders to do the same.
After the Food and Drug Administration granted full approval for Pfizer-BioNTech’s coronavirus vaccine on Aug. 23, Biden urged corporate vaccine mandates.
“If you are a business executive, a nonprofit executive, a state or local executive, who is awaiting full FDA approval to require vaccinations, I am now asking you to do so,” a- he said at the time. “Demand it. “
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