On Friday, December 17, the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated OSHA's vaccine mandate for private employers with at least 100 employees. On Saturday, OSHA announced that it will proceed forward with enforcement under modified timelines.
OSHA will now wait until January 10 to begin issuing citations for failure to comply with the initial requirements of the mandate, which are summarized here. OSHA also said it would not issue citations for its testing requirements until February 9 "so long as an employee is exercising reasonable, good faith efforts to come into compliance with the standard."
Many believe that the U.S. Supreme Court will take up the case and issue the final word – however, that is uncertain at this time. For now, businesses must act to institute a vaccine mandate policy that complies with OSHA's rule.
It is important to note that this ruling does not impact the mandate issued by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid ("CMS") and the mandate issued for federal contractors. Those mandates remain on hold in South Carolina as of this time.
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