The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals dissolved the stay of the OSHA Covid-19 Vaccination and Testing Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS). OSHA has published new compliance dates. OSHA provides the following summary compliance information on its website:
To account for any uncertainty created by the stay, OSHA is exercising enforcement discretion with respect to the compliance dates of the ETS. To provide employers with sufficient time to come into compliance, OSHA will not issue citations for noncompliance with any requirements of the ETS before January 10 and will not issue citations for noncompliance with the standard’s testing requirements before February 9, so long as an employer is exercising reasonable, good faith efforts to come into compliance with the standard. OSHA will work closely with the regulated community to provide compliance assistance.
The OSHA ETS applies to employers with 100 or more employees. Under the ETS, OSHA stated that multiple "related entities" (e.g., affiliates) may be regarded as a single employer for purposes of calculating the 100-employee threshold if they "handle safety measures as one company." See Preparing for OSHA’s COVID-19 Vaccine or Testing ETS for Large Employers (smithlaw.com) . Please note that North Carolina has been delegated authority to operate the OSHA program. NCDOL Secretary Dobson has not announced how he will respond to the dissolution of the stay. However, delegated programs have few options other than to enforce a program at least as strict as the federal program. Employers with more than 100 employees whether under one entity or in affiliated entities will need to adopt a policy addressing the ETS so that they can be in compliance by the stated compliance dates. The ETS allows employers to adopt either a mandatory vaccination policy or a vaccination or testing and face covering policy.
Please note that the Supreme Court could still block enforcement but if it does not, employers need to be prepared.
Please see link below:
