On Sept. 9, 2021, President Biden announced that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is developing an emergency temporary standard (ETS). The new ETS will require private-sector employers with 100 or more employees to ensure their workforce is fully vaccinated or test negative for COVID-19 every week before coming to work.

This announcement follows the vaccination, masking and social distancing requirements issued by the President in July for the public sector—federal employees and on-site contractors.

There currently is no time frame as to when the new ETS will be released. The government estimates that the ETS will impact over 80 million private-sector workers.

OSHA previously published an August update to it’s Guidance on Mitigating and Preventing the Spread of COVID-19 in the Workplace.  We expect OSHA will heavily draw from these guidelines for content to include in the upcoming Emergency Temporary Standard.  Read the full text of this most recent guidance posted by OSHA here.

Emergency Temporary Standard for Healthcare

OSHA currently has a COVID-19 ETS for the health care and health care support workers. This ETS covers hospitals, nursing homes and assisted living facilities; emergency responders; home health care workers; and employees in ambulatory care settings where suspected or confirmed COVID-19 patients are treated. This standard was published in July 2021 and will not be impacted by President Biden’s new mandate.

Next Steps

Employers should continue to protect at-risk, unvaccinated and fully vaccinated workers. Employers should also monitor OSHA communication channels to become familiar with the expected private sector ETS once it is published.

Important Information

OSHA’s ETS for employers with 100 or more employees will be required to:

  • Ensure their employees are fully vaccinated; or
  • Require any workers who remain unvaccinated to produce a negative test results on a weekly basis before coming to work.

This Legal Update is not intended to be exhaustive nor should any discussion or opinions be construed as legal advice. Readers should contact legal counsel for legal advice. ©2021 Zywave, Inc. All rights reserved.