Skip to main content

Updated: Biden Administration Amends Compliance Date For Workplace Vaccine Mandate


Readers will likely recall that in recent months, the President Biden administration issued an executive order requiring all federal contractors to be vaccinated as well as instructing the Labor Department to work with the Occupation Safety and Health Administration on a requirement that employers with 100 or more employees require vaccinations.

Let us take this in two parts, starting first with an amendment to the federal contractor vaccination requirement.  Previously, the executive order required all federal contractors be vaccinated by December 8th.  However, there have been a growing number of grips and complaints about this deadline as many critics said it would further exacerbate supply chain issues heading into the holiday season.  However, earlier today, that vaccination deadline for federal contractors was moved to January 4th.

In regard to the vaccination requirement for employers with 100 or more employees, that requirement is now set to go into effect on January 4th as well (with an option for employees to skip vaccinations and instead submit to weekly testing.)  Notably, workers must have received either their second shot of Pfizer of Moderna or their single shot of Johnson & Johnson by that January 4th date.  However, the Biden administration today announced that starting December 5th, all unvaccinated workers will be required to start wearing masks in the workplace and provide a negative coronavirus test after the January 4th deadline.  I do want to point out one particularly troublesome development for employees though:  Companies will not be required to pay for testing unless otherwise required by state or federal law or if it is in a collective bargaining agreement.  This could turn into a rather expensive, ongoing cost for unvaccinated workers at large scale employers.

I do want to note, however, that these vaccine mandates do not apply to workplaces in which others are not present, for employees that work remotely, or employees that perform their work exclusively outside.

The fines that can be levied against large scale employers for non compliance are somewhat sizable:  $13,653.00 for each “serious” violation all the way up to $136,532.00 if an employer willfully violates this mandate.

While this workplace vaccine mandate compliance date could yet again be moved or held up in the court system, I think it will go into effect sooner rather than later.  Federal contractors and large scale employers would be wise to start planning accordingly.


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

NLRB: Discussion Among Employees About Tip Pooling is Protected Concerted Activity

  This Advice Memorandum from the National Labor Relations Board’s Associate General Counsel, Jayme Sophir, addressed whether employees which discussed and complained about tip pooling at work constituted protected concerted activity. In relevant part, an employer in New York operated a chain of steakhouses.  While tip pooling was in place at these steakhouses, some of the employees objected to it on the grounds that it was not transparent and improperly divided tips among the workers.  Employees were told not to complain or talk to each other about the tip pool and were told that doing so would endanger their jobs.  Despite the employer later attempting to provide some clarity as to how the tips were being divided, rancor still existed among some employees.  At one point, the employees were told by a general manager that some employees that had been talking about the tip pool were “cleared out” and the employer would continue to do so. In the Advice Memorandum,...

San Diego Rolls Back Vaccine Mandate For City Workers

Last Tuesday, the San Diego City Council voted to do away with the vaccine mandate for city employees. The city’s vaccine mandate that was in place required city workers to get the coronavirus vaccine or risk termination.  Perhaps to this surprise of no one, the city’s policy came under fire with 14 employees being terminated and over 100 other employees resigning.  With the coronavirus subsiding, including in Southern California, the San Diego City Council took action. Now, bear in mind, the repeal of the vaccine mandate does not take place immediately. With that being said, the mandate will be repealed March 8th.  I suppose the question now is, what other cities or regions follow San Diego’s lead? For additional information:   https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/politics/story/2023-01-24/san-diego-repeals-controversial-covid-19-vaccine-mandate-citing-drop-in-cases-hospitalizations

NLRB: Former Employee Cannot Be Barred From Work Premises After Filing Wage Suit

MEI-GSR Holdings, LLC - NLRB Facts :  MEI-GSR Holdings, LLC d/b/a Grand Sierra Resort & Casino ("GSR") operated a facility that included a hotel, casino, restaurant, clubs, bars, and a pool which were all open to the general public.  Tiffany Sargent ("Sargent") was briefly employed by GSR as a "beverage supervisor" in December of 2012.  After her employment ended, Sargent continued to socialize at one of the clubs.  GSR had a long standing practice of allowing former employees to patronize its facility and did not prohibit Sargent from doing so.  In June of 2013, Sargent and another employee filed a class and collective action against GSR for alleged unpaid wages, in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act and Nevada law.  In July of 2014, GSR denied Sargent access to an event at one of the clubs.  GSR followed up with a letter and stated that with the on-going litigation (from the wage suit), it decided to bar Sargent from the premises. ...