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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.


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