Skip to main content

Breaking: U.S. Supreme Court Issues Rulings in Vaccine Mandate Cases


That did not take long, did it?  Only a few short days after the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments on two coronavirus vaccine mandate cases, we have the Court’s rulings.

Let us start first with the case that dealt with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) requirement that employers with 100 or more employees would be required to have their employees either get the coronavirus vaccine or submit to weekly testing.  For those employees that were not vaccinated, they were required to wear masks while in the workplace.  In a 6 - 3 ruling, the Supreme Court held that while Congress had given OSHA to regulate dangers in the workplace, OSHA did not have Congressional authority to regulate public health measures more broadly.  Consequently, a majority of the Court struck down this mandate.

However, one thing to keep in mind is that an employer, on their own volition, can still require their employees get the vaccine (unless there is a contract or collective bargaining agreement that would require a bargaining process before such a policy was created.)  What today’s ruling from the Court does is say that the federal government cannot mandate this, at least in this instance based upon how OSHA tried to write and enact this particular mandate…despite the fact that employers could still do so at their own will.

The second case centered on a requirement that healthcare workers at facilities that receive Medicare or Medicaid get the coronavirus vaccine as a condition of employment, unless there was a medical or religious exemption.  In a narrow 5 - 4 ruling, the Court upheld this requirement on the grounds that the requirement, issued by the Health & Human Services, was within the scope of authority provided by Congress.

For those for or against coronavirus vaccine mandates, today’s rulings are both a win and a loss.  With that being said, the vaccine mandate for large employers getting struck down is likely to impact more workers across the country.  The question now to consider is whether Congress will attempt to confer additional authority to OSHA in an effort to circumvent today’s ruling and ultimately implement a vaccine mandate for large scale employers?  Something tells me that even with Democrats having majority control of Congress, that would be no easy task and therefore unlikely.


For additional information:   https://www.cnbc.com/2022/01/13/supreme-court-ruling-biden-covid-vaccine-mandates.html

Comments

Post a Comment

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,...
Post a Comment
Read more

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. ...
1 comment
Read more

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
Post a Comment
Read more