Businesses await final details of vaccination-test mandate
WASHINGTON — More than six weeks after promising a new vaccination-or-testing rule covering the millions of Americans at companies with 100 or more workers, President Joe Biden’s most aggressive move yet to combat the COVID-19 pandemic is almost ready to see the light of day.
A White House office is expected to give the green light any day to the rule’s fine print detailing how and when companies will have to require their employees to be vaccinated or undergo weekly testing.
The full enforcement deadline, which could carry penalties of about $14,000 per violation, may not take effect until after the new year. That’s why Biden and his aides have for weeks encouraged businesses to act as though the rule was already in effect and start imposing vaccination requirements.
The regulation, to be published in the Federal Register, was drafted by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration under emergency authorities to protect worker safety and will cover an estimated 80 million U.S. workers.
Unlike health care providers or federal employees, who may not have a testing alternative to vaccination, private sector workers won’t necessarily face termination if they don’t get vaccinated.
But some businesses may choose to impose their own more stringent vaccination mandate, and it’s possible that businesses may be allowed to pass on the cost of weekly COVID-19 testing to their unvaccinated employees.
White House officials declined to discuss when the rule will be published or go into details on when businesses will have to comply.
For the past week, federal officials have hosted more than two dozen listening sessions with industry groups, businesses and advocacy organizations.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other groups that represent large employers are worried that the plan’s threshold — applying to companies with 100 or more employees — could cause workers to migrate to jobs at smaller employers where they won’t need to be vaccinated.
Some businesses have been supportive of the rule, others opposed, but all are eager to learn more about the fine print of the regulation.