OSHA Releases the Rule Related to Vaccine Mandate

On November 4, the Biden administration released its OSHA Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS: 2021-23643.pdf (federalregister.gov) that applies to school districts in 28 states. As part of the President’s COVID-19 Action Plan, under the ETS any covered employers must develop, implement and enforce a mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policy, unless they adopt a policy requiring employees to choose either to get vaccinated or to undergo weekly COVID-19 testing. It also requires employers to provide paid time to workers to get vaccinated and paid sick leave to recover from any side effects. OSHA estimates this rule will save over 6,500 worker lives and prevent over 250,000 hospitalizations during the 6 months after implementation.

To see whether school districts in your state will be impacted by this rule you can check the OSHA website here. If your state is impacted, OSHA has released materials to explain how the rule will impact public sector organizations. 

On Friday, November 12 from 1:00-1:45pm ET, OSHA will host a webinar for education stakeholders with a K-12 focus. Register for that webinar here.