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Breaking: OSHA Formally Withdraws Its Vaccine Mandate For Large Employers


Yesterday, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (“OSHA”) announced that it would stop requiring large employers (those with 100 or more employees) from having their employees get the coronavirus vaccines as a condition of employment and today, would formally withdraw the emergency standard previously issued.

Readers will recall that the U.S. Supreme Court had previously issued a ruling on the matter, striking down OSHA’s mandate.  Nevertheless, there was some thought that OSHA might try and find a way to re-work its emergency standard to get around the Supreme Court’s ruling.  While there was never any guarantee that would happen (or that it would even survived judicial scrutiny), this announcement from OSHA that it was walking away from the emergency standard provides some clarity on the matter.

Of course, this begs the question…what next?  At a minimum, OSHA is expected to focus its efforts on the state level rather than a nationwide mandate (in regard to vaccine mandates in the employment context.)  For the time being, and the foreseeable future, however, a nationwide vaccine mandate for large scale employers has hit a dead end.


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