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At this point, you’re probably aware that the Biden Administration’s COVID-19 Action Plan required all employers with 100 or more employees to ensure their workforce is fully vaccinated or require any workers who remain unvaccinated to produce a negative test result on at least a weekly basis before coming to work.
Perhaps I should not have been surprised that my clients who have mandated COVID-19 vaccines have seen far more objections to their mandates based on religious grounds than on medical conditions or disabilities.
While many service, retail and factory workers returned to work several months ago, many employers with white-collar workers have been less inclined to mandate that employees return to the office.
Occupational Safety and Health Administration (“OSHA”) Region VI — which includes Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana and Arkansas — has established a new Regional Emphasis Program targeting worker exposure to hazards associated with the cleaning of transportation tanks.
Keys. Phone. Wallet. Mask. For the past year, those have been the staple items most individuals have ensured they have on their person before leaving their home to go to work.
Employers who have been nervous about implementing or enforcing new vaccination policies should be relieved to see the updated technical guidance issued on May 28, 2021, by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”).
The initial effective date of June 4, 2021, for New York’s HERO Act (“HERO”) is rapidly approaching, and soon all employers in New York will be required to adopt and implement model airborne infectious disease standards to be published by the New York Department of Labor in the upcoming week.
A few weeks ago, the most common question that employers were asking was whether they could (or should) require employees to get vaccinated. Most of my employment colleagues agreed that employers could mandate vaccines as long as they accommodate employees with medical and religious objections.
On March 12, 2021, OSHA established a 12-month long “National Emphasis Program,” effecting an immediate emphasis on the enforcement of safety standards associated with COVID-19.
Based on discussions that I have had with many of my clients in the last few weeks, most hope that their employees will be vaccinated for COVID-19. At the same time, most are reluctant to mandate vaccines.
On March 2, as I was waiting in line in the parking lot of NRG Stadium in Houston to get my first COVID jab, Texas Governor Greg Abbott announced that, effective March 10, there would no longer be any COVID-19 operating limits for Texas businesses.
One question that employers have been asking since the onset of the pandemic is whether they could be sued by employees who get sick as a result of being exposed to an infected coworker.