President Biden announced an action plan for the COVID-19 pandemic back in September, which included a vaccine-or-test proposal for employers with 100 or more employees. Although the proposal was temporarily blocked, it is now back in effect after the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals “lifted the stay” on the previous ruling that halted the required implementation.

As such, it’s important for employers to understand what is required for OSHA’s Emergency Temporary Standard, which goes into effect January 10, 2022. isolved’s People Services team covered many of the details of OSHA’s ETS in a previous blog post, and most of that information remains consistent with the updated ruling. However, OSHA is delaying enforcement of the ETS with respect to the compliance dates to account for any uncertainty created by the stay. 

In fact, OSHA’s litigation update states:

“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 09, so long as an employer is exercising reasonable, good faith efforts to come into compliance with the standard.”

To assist in compliance with the standard, isolved People Cloud includes a Documents on File feature that enables employers to store vaccination records, policy attestation forms and other compliance documents within an employee record. Additionally, the isolved People Services team can develop a legally approved Employee Vaccination Policy that can be signed and stored in isolved People Cloud.

The U.S. Supreme Court will likely make the final determination on the legality of OSHA’s ETS, but employers should still be ready to move forward before a decision is reached. isolved is closely following all updates and will continue to provide more information as it becomes available. 

About Eric: 

Eric Benzel serves as a Senior Human Resources Consultant on isolved’s People Services team, bringing more than 7 years of high-level and diverse HR experience. He supports clients in a variety of industries, including manufacturing, IT, health care, non-profit and hospitality. Areas of expertise include process improvement, change management, compliance, recruitment and retention, and executive coaching and consulting. 

• This blog is not legal advice. Please seek proper legal advice.

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