On Thursday, September 9, 2021, President Joseph Biden announced the issuance of sweeping COVID-19 mandates that will apply to millions of employees. The announcement was part of the Biden administration's "Path Out of the Pandemic", a comprehensive national strategy to combat COVID-19.

As part of the Path Out of the Pandemic strategy, President Biden announced that the Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration ("OSHA") was developing a rule requiring all employers with at least 100 employees to ensure their employees are fully vaccinated or require any workers who remain unvaccinated to produce a negative test result on at least a weekly basis before coming to work.

Today, OSHA issued an Emergency Temporary Standard ("ETS") outlining the COVID-19 vaccination and testing requirements for covered employers – those companies with 100 or more employees – most of which will take effect on December 5, 2021 (thirty days after the ETS is published in the Federal Register, which is scheduled for tomorrow). Additionally, by January 4, 2022, covered employers must implement the weekly testing requirement for all employees who are not fully vaccinated.

The ETS requires covered employers to develop, implement, and enforce a mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policy, with an exception for employers that instead adopt a policy requiring employees to elect either to get vaccinated or to undergo regular COVID-19 testing and wear a face covering at work.

Applicability

The COVID-19 Vaccination and Testing ETS applies to all companies with 100 or more employees. To determine applicability of the ETS, employers must include all employees across all of their U.S. workplaces, regardless of employees' vaccination status or where they perform their work.

The ETS vaccination and testing requirements do not apply to the employees of covered employers who do not report to a workplace where other individuals, such as coworkers or customers are present, or while working from home.

This new  ETS does not apply to: (1) workplaces covered under the Safer Federal Workforce Task Force COVID-19 Workplace Safety: Guidance for Federal Contractors and subcontractors; (2) settings where any employee provides healthcare services or healthcare support services when already subject to the requirements of the Healthcare ETS issued June 21, 2021; (2) workplaces of employers who have fewer than 100 employees in total; and (3) public employers in states without State Plans.

Documentation Requirements

Covered employers must determine the vaccination status of each employee, obtain acceptable proof of vaccination from vaccinated employees, maintain records of each employee's vaccination status, and maintain a roster of each employee's vaccination status.

To satisfy this requirement, employees must show one of the following:

  • the record of immunization from a health care provider or pharmacy;
  • a copy of the U.S. COVID-19 Vaccination Record Card;
  • a copy of medical records documenting the vaccination;
  • a copy of immunization records from a public health, state, or tribal immunization information system; or
  • a copy of any other official documentation that contains the type of vaccine administered, date(s) of administration, and the name of the health care professional(s) or clinic site(s) administering the vaccine(s).

To be acceptable as proof of vaccination, any documentation should generally include the employee's name, type of vaccine administered, date(s) of administration, and the name of the health care professional(s) or clinic site(s) administering the vaccine(s).

Employers may obtain a physical copy of a vaccination record or they may allow employees to provide a digital copy of acceptable records, including, for example, a digital photograph, scanned image, or PDF of such a record that clearly and legibly displays the necessary vaccination information. However, to be in compliance, the employer must ensure they are able to maintain a record of each employee's vaccination status. Therefore, the record maintenance requirements cannot be fulfilled by an employee merely showing the employer their vaccination status. Employers must retain a physical or digital copy of the documentation. 

Paid Leave Requirements

The ETS provides that covered employers must provide their employees reasonable time, including up to four hours of paid time, to receive each primary vaccination dose. Employers are prohibited from requiring employees to use paid time off to receive the primary vaccination doses.  

Employers are further required to provide employees reasonable time and paid sick leave to recover from any side effects experienced following each primary vaccination dose. If an employee already has accrued paid sick leave, an employer may require the employee to use that paid sick leave when recovering from side effects experienced following a primary vaccination dose. Additionally, if an employer does not specify between different types of leave (i.e., employees are granted only one type of leave), the employer may require employees to use that leave when recovering from vaccination side effects. If an employer provides employees with multiple types of leave, such as sick leave and vacation leave, the employer can only require employees to use the sick leave when recovering from vaccination side effects.

Employers cannot require employees to use advanced sick leave to cover reasonable time needed to recover from vaccination side effects. An employer may not require an employee to accrue negative paid sick leave or borrow against future paid sick leave to recover from vaccination side effects. In other words, the employer cannot require an employee to go into the negative for paid sick leave if the employee does not have accrued paid sick leave when they need to recover from side effects experienced following a primary vaccination dose.

Employers may set a cap on the amount of paid sick leave available to employees to recover from any side effects, but the cap must be reasonable. Because some people have no side effects, and most side effects, if experienced, go away in a few days, OSHA has stated that it presumes that, if an employer makes available up to two days of paid sick leave per primary vaccination dose for side effects, the employer would be in compliance with the paid leave requirement.

Testing and Face Covering Requirements for Unvaccinated Employees

Covered employers must require employees who are not fully vaccinated to be tested for COVID-19 at least weekly (if in the workplace at least once a week) or within 7 days before returning to work (if away from the workplace for a week or longer). The ETS does not require employers to pay for any costs associated with testing. However, employer payment for testing may be required by other laws, regulations, or collective bargaining agreements or other collectively negotiated agreements.

Employees who are not able to receive a COVID-19 vaccination due to a disability or sincerely-held religious belief are not exempt from the testing requirement and must comply as any other employee who has not been fully vaccinated.

The ETS requires employers to maintain a record of each test result required to be provided by each employee pursuant to the ETS or obtained during tests conducted by the employer.

The ETS requires covered employers to require that each employee who is not fully vaccinated wears a face covering when indoors or when occupying a vehicle with another person for work purposes, except in certain limited circumstances.

Employees must promptly provide notice when they receive a positive COVID-19 test or are diagnosed with COVID-19. Employers must immediately remove from the workplace any employee, regardless of vaccination status, who received a positive COVID-19 test or is diagnosed with COVID-19 by a licensed healthcare provider, and keep the employee out of the workplace until return to work criteria are met.

When an employee has received a positive COVID-19 test, or has been diagnosed with COVID-19 by a licensed healthcare provider, the employer must not require that employee to undergo COVID-19 testing for 90 days following the date of their positive test or diagnosis, due to the high likelihood of false positive results that do not indicate active infection but are rather a reflection of past infection. However, when the employee returns to work, they must continue to wear a face covering.

Notifications to Employees

Covered employers are required to provide their employees with information about: (1) the requirements of the ETS and the workplace policies and procedures established to implement the ETS; (2) vaccine efficacy, safety, and the benefits of being vaccinated (by providing the CDC document "Key Things to Know About COVID-19 Vaccines"); (3) protections against retaliation and discrimination; and (4) the provisions of the Occupational Safety and Health Act that provide for criminal penalties for knowingly supplying false statements or documentation. Fact sheets related to OSH Act protections against retaliation and criminal penalties for knowingly supplying false statements or documentation are available on OSHA's website.

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.