Get ready for more of your rights being violated. Apparently, the vaccine police are now going to come to your place of business to see if you are being compliant!
I guess it’s time to cue the lights and sirens, because, America, you need to get ready for the vaccine police to come knocking on your door. And no, it’s not just going to be your residential door, but your commercial door as well.
According to one report, there are plenty of workers who remain unvaccinated that may encounter a lot of trouble at their place of employment and pay a serious price.
The Occupational Health and Safety Administration, which is an agency within the Department of Labor, reported on Monday that they recently completed an interagency review that was the final step in their plan (the final nail in the coffin? Pardon my snarkiness) to enforce Biden’s plan to enforce a vaccine mandate on employers that have 100 or more workers.
“On November 1, the Office of Management and Budget completed its regulatory review of the emergency temporary standard. The Federal Register will publish the emergency temporary standard in the coming days,” a Labor Department spokesman reported to CNN.
“The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has been working expeditiously to develop an emergency temporary standard that covers employers with 100 or more employees, firm- or company-wide, and provides options for compliance.”
“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 regular COVID-19 testing and wear a face covering at work. The ETS also requires employers to provide paid time to workers to get vaccinated and paid sick leave to recover from any side effects,” the spokesman added.
The only thing you need to know about ETS is that it is bureaucratic shorthand for “emergency temporary standard.” When an entity exists as an ETS, it means that it is a rule that will take effect immediately, even when a public comment period takes place.
The fines could run as high as $14,000 per violation.
However, according to a Bloomberg Law report, the new rule just might also have financial consequences for unvaccinated employees.
Based on unnamed sources, Bloomberg Law is also stating that this could enable employers to make employees pay for their masks and testing if they choose to remain unvaccinated. Of course, there are some employees that would qualify for an exemption under federal law.
“After all, making the fallback route of weekly testing a financial burden for the employee would encourage more folks to take the vaccination pathway. The administration in the process would tamp down business opposition by delivering on a key industry ask — relief from being forced to shoulder those costs — while giving employers the option of absorbing testing costs if they fear losing workers,” the outlet reported.
Jordan Barab, a former OHSA official, put the blame on the Biden Administration, claiming that they likely pushed for it and he called it a “really bad precedent.”
“OSHA’s always had a firm policy that employers pay for all required tests and equipment,” Barab said, noting the possible exception of the work boots. “This would be totally unprecedented and therefore set a bad standard for future OSHA requirements.”
Multiple GOP state attorney generals are now saying that they will challenge the law if it actually does appear in the Federal Register, as reported by the Washington Post. Naturally, this is also dependent on how the courts react. If they challenge these rules, it could absolutely move the effective date of the new rules further back.
The rule could also have a grace period, especially when you consider the tremendous labor shortages, supply chain issues, and the increased demand around the holidays.
