On Thursday, Nov. 4, 2021, the U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OHSA) issued Emergency Temporary Standards (ETS) to minimize the "grave danger" of COVID-19 transmission in the workplace. Employers with 100 or more employees must ensure that their employees are fully vaccinated, or must require weekly testing for unvaccinated employees, with few exceptions, by Jan. 4, 2022.
To follow are the rules that covered employers are required to implement by or before Jan. 4:
· Require vaccinations for all employees as soon as practicable, with limited exceptions.
· Determine each employee's vaccination status.
· Obtain acceptable proof of vaccination from employees.
· Maintain records of each employee's vaccination status and a roster of each employee's status.
· Provide up to four hours paid leave time for employees to receive each vaccination dose.
· Provide reasonable time and paid sick leave to recover from side effects experienced following each dose.
· Verify that each employee who is not fully vaccinated is tested weekly for COVID-19. (The ETS does not require employers to pay for any costs associated with testing.)
· Require notice from, and removal from the workplace of, an employee who is diagnosed with COVID-19 or who receives a positive COVID-19 test result.
· Ensure that each employee who is not fully vaccinated wears a face covering when indoors or in a work vehicle, with certain exceptions.
· Do not prevent employees who want to wear face coverings, unless wearing a face covering would pose a serious workplace hazard.
· Provide notice and information to employees about these requirements.
· Report any COVID-19 fatalities and hospitalizations to OSHA within eight hours of learning about the same, and report work-related COVID-19 in-patient hospitalizations within 24 hours of the employer learning of the hospitalization.
· Make an employee's v00accine documentation and test results available to the employee or his/her designee.
· Make information available to employees regarding the aggregate number of fully vaccinated employees at their particular workplace and the total number of employees at that particular workplace.
These requirements do not apply to federal contractors and subcontractors and those employees who provide healthcare services or healthcare support services, as they are covered under separate standards.
The requirements do not apply to employees who work at a remote workplace or at a location without other co-workers or customers. Those who work exclusively from home or exclusively outdoors do not have to comply with the vaccine or testing requirements unless they come into the office or are indoors for more than a de-minimis period of time.
The ETS contains additional detail on some of the requirements above which are too detailed to cover in this article. Please contact Amy Lombardo with any questions you may have, or attend Parsons' Wed., Nov. 10 webinar from 8:30-9:30 a.m. MST to learn more about how to implement these mandates within your company.
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.
