Labor secretary to states suing over employer vaccine mandate: Read the rule

Labor Secretary Marty Walsh said Thursday the federal government has “every right” to impose a vaccine requirement on businesses to help with workplace safety.

State attorneys general immediately announced lawsuits against the Biden administration over the workplace mandate.

“I think it’s unfortunate that at this moment so many states ... haven’t had a chance to talk to their employers in their states to see what they feel about this,” Walsh said in an interview with McClatchy.

Several Republican-run states, including Florida, said they planned to sue the administration over the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) rule, which requires businesses with more than 100 employees to make sure their workers are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 or test negative weekly and wear a mask.

The administration says the rule will cover 84 million workers. OSHA said Thursday that it will go into effect on Jan. 4 alongside a similar requirement for federal contractors.

Walsh insisted the Labor Department is on solid legal ground. Of the potential for a federal court to issue an injunction that would temporarily halt the measure, he said, “I can’t worry about that at this moment.”

He said his goal is to keep workers safe and that state attorneys general have the right to sue the administration.

“It’s the attorney generals’ rights,” he said. “If they want to do what they want to do, do it.”

Missouri’s Attorney General Eric Schmitt in a statement announcing his state’s lawsuit called it an “illegal, unconstitutional attempt by the Biden Administration and the federal government to impose their will on” businesses and their employees.

“The federal government does not have the authority to unilaterally force private employers to mandate their employees get vaccinated or foot the bill for weekly testing,” he said.

Walsh said employers will not necessarily be paying for the COVID-19 tests their unvaccinated employees will be required to take each week.

“I don’t know if he’s read, fully read, the ruling there. If he reads the ruling, he’ll understand that the employer in some cases will not be footing the bill,” Walsh said.

Employees will also be responsible for purchasing their own masks if they are not vaccinated, according to the rule.

The trucking industry registered concerns that the vaccine mandates could cause workers to quit rather than get inoculated and result in delivery delays leading into the holidays. Walsh said truck drivers may not be affected by the requirement that unvaccinated individuals test weekly for COVID and wear masks.

“If you’re a truck driver, you’re not necessarily covered by this, because you’re working in your own cab. If you’re working outside, you’re not covered by this,” he said. “So there’s a lot of workers in this space that you know, feel, might feel at the first reading of it, that they’re covered by it, but because of their work, they won’t be covered by it.”