Biden Mandates Vaccines for Federal Contractors and Private Employers
September 10, 2021
In President Joe Biden’s press conference yesterday, he announced that he has directed Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to require all private employers with 100 or more employees to mandate all employees be vaccinated or be tested at the employer’s expense at least once per week. OSHA will issue an Emergency Temporary Standard to introduce the vaccine requirement. Companies that fail to comply could face fines of $14,000 per violation.
The President also signed an Executive Order requiring all federal contractors (regardless of size) and all government employees be vaccinated against Covid-19, with no option of being regularly tested to opt out. health care workers at facilities receiving funds from Medicare and Medicaid are also required to be fully vaccinated, expanding the mandate to hospitals, home care facilities and dialysis centers around the country
Given many governors, pro-business groups and trade associations are vowing to challenge Biden’s directives, it is SESCO’s current recommendation for those employers who do not wish to mandate vaccines for all employees to “count to ten” before implementing such policy. SESCO will continually monitor developments as to when the regulation will be implemented and subsequently the progress of legal challenges.
As we have communicated previously, employers can currently mandate that all employees be vaccinated regardless of the number of employees. Many employers have decided to do so; however, given the current economic and staffing challenges some have made business decisions to not mandate the vaccine.
