Articles
OSHA’s Enforcement of the OSHA COVID-19 Large Employer ETS Starts Today, 1/10. But Will the Supremes Put a Stop to It?
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OSHA will begin enforcing the provisions of the OSHA COVID-19 Vaccination and Testing Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS) starting today, January 10, 2022. However, it will not issue citations for noncompliance with the standard’s testing requirements before February 9, so long as an employer is exercising reasonable, good faith efforts to come into compli...
Get Ready–the U.S. Supreme Court is Going to Hear Arguments on the OSHA ETS and the CMS Vaccine Mandate
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Yesterday, the U.S. Supreme Court announced that it will hold a special session on January 7, 2022 to hear arguments regarding whether to stay the OSHA Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS) vaccine or test rule and the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) vaccine mandate for healthcare workers. It is unusual for the Court to hear arguments (rather...
Legal challenges to the Biden Administration’s COVID-19 vaccine mandates are working their way quickly through the federal court system. With new rulings being issued on days, nights and weekends, it is hard to keep with which mandates are stayed and which are not. So here is a quick overview of where we are right now:
Today, the EEOC issued some new guidance that purports to clarify circumstances in which COVID-19 may or may not cause effects sufficient to meet the definition of “actual” or “record of” a disability for various purposes under Title I, as well as section 501 of the Rehabilitation Act. However, finding clarity on anything related to the ADA is a challenge...
On December 7, 2021, U.S. District Judge Stan Baker of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Georgia, granted a nationwide injunction staying enforcement of the federal government contractor vaccine mandate. The law firm of Wimberly, Lawson, Steckel, Schneider & Stine, P.C. represented the Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC), a tr...
As noted in my blog post last week, it was expected that there would be many challenges to the COVID Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS). Those challenges were filed very quickly, and on Saturday, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals stayed enforcement of the ETS based on “grave statutory and constitutional issues.”
Does Your Company Need to Comply with Vaccine and Safety Protocols Applicable to Federal Contractors?
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On September 9, 2021, President Biden signed Executive Order 14042, Ensuring Adequate COVID Safety Protocols for Federal Contractors, which directs executive departments and agencies, including independent establishments subject to the Federal Property and Administrative Services Act, 40 U.S.C. § 102(4)(A), to ensure that covered contracts and contract-li...
The OSHA COVID-19 Vaccination and Testing Emergency Temporary Standard is Here — What You need to Know
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The Biden Administration promised us a COVID-19 vaccine mandate, and today it arrived for private employers of 100 or more employees. [There is also a mandate for federal contractors and another for healthcare workers, but we are not going to talk about those in this post.]
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issued an emergency temp...
The EEOC Updated Its COVID Vaccination Guidance and Confirmed What We Already Knew About Political Objections to Vaccination
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Yesterday, the EEOC updated its Guidance regarding COVID-19, specifically addressing employee religious objections to employer vaccination policies. What we learned is something we pretty much already knew; at least, it is the advice that we have been giving to clients, namely, that a political objection to vaccination is not protected by Title VII.
In our discussions of rules mandating COVID-19 vaccines, we’ve mentioned the two possible exemptions to a vaccine requirement: disability and religion. Let’s break down the religious exemption.
Under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, a covered employer is required to “reasonably accommodate” an employee’s sincerely held religious beliefs or practic...
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