New state laws thwart mandates
Four recent bills change vaccine, mask requirements
Employees in Florida who refuse the COVID-19 vaccine now have the backing of Ron DeSantis, Florida’s Republican governor.
Passed during a special legislative session almost entirely among party lines on Wednesday, four bills now do many things, including curb mask and vaccine mandates. In doing so, Florida became the first in the country with a law imposing fines on companies that require a COVID-19 vaccination as a condition of employment.
Here are the new laws and how they affect the public.
What does the main Florida mandate bill say?
House Bill 1B gives schoolchildren, parents, workers and employees in Florida various ways to avoid being required to be vaccinated.
The bill outright bans mandates for government employees. And while the bill doesn’t ban private employers from having vaccine mandates, it says they must abide by an expanded list of exemptions for workers.
Previously for private businesses, any vaccine requirements for workers included exemptions for religious or medical reasons. The expanded exemptions list now includes: Any worker who can demonstrate COVID-19 immunity, anyone who agrees to regular testing, wears protective gear, is pregnant or who is attempting to get pregnant.
“Florida is leading,” DeSantis said Thursday before signing the bills. “This is the strongest piece of legislation that’s been enacted anywhere in the country in this regard.”
If you break that rule?
Businesses with more than 100 employees face fines of up to $50,000 per violation and businesses with fewer than 100 employees face fines of up to $10,000.
Workers can file a complaint with Attorney General Ashley Moody’s office if they’re denied an exemption and a business can avoid a fine if they reinstate an employee while under investigation.
The employee must be given full back pay, however. The bill sets aside $5 million for Moody’s office to conduct investigations.
“If there are are complaints, the law says the state of Florida must investigate,” said Michael Elkins, a Fort Lauderdale-based labor and employment attorney. “But at the end of the day, most smaller businesses have not imposed vaccine mandates that I’ve been dealing with.”
Anecdotally there have been incentives, but not mandates, he said.
“I’m not sure this is going to shake out in any way for small businesses, I think the bigger issue is what happens with the cruise lines, those are the people who might challenge this.”
Elkins expects fireworks from the legal challenges. “There’s going to be a fight: How, when, I’m not entirely sure ... [but] don’t call the game yet,” Elkins said.
Shielding information
House Bill 3B creates a new exemption for public records requests, specifically masking any employee complaints alleging their company is violating the new state law by not providing the required exemptions.
All information will now be confidential while an investigation is “active,” meaning the public could never know a business had been investigated unless a fine is eventually issued.
Fighting the federal government
House Bill 5B creates the Florida Occupational Safety and Health State Plan. This bill develops a proposal to withdraw from the federal Occupational
Safety and Health Administration and to assert state jurisdiction.
A rule issued by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration requires U.S. businesses with more than 100 employees to require workers to be vaccinated against COVID-19 by Jan. 4, with exemptions for medical or religious reasons, or with weekly testing for unvaccinated workers.
Any employee who doesn’t come in regular contact with others is exempt as well.
That rule, however, has been delayed by a federal court pending a lawsuit. That appeals court is known to be moderately conservative since most judges were appointed by Republican presidents.
Since it’s on hold, companies do not have to choose to either follow the federal government edict and get fined by the state of Florida, or follow DeSantis’ laws and get fined by the federal government.
When a final decision could come isn’t yet known. But “whoever loses is going to take it to the United States Supreme Court, that’s the general feeling,” Elkins said.
Curtailing medical power
House Bill 7B is labeled “Vaccinations During Public Health Emergencies” and includes measures to strip away the power of the Florida Surgeon General to order vaccinations during a public health emergency.
Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo most recently made news when he refused to wear a mask while meeting with Sen. Tina Polsky, a Democrat from Boca Raton, who has breast cancer.
“The mission of this special session was to ensure that the law reflects the values of liberty in our state,” Ladapo said in a governor-issued statement. “Floridians are now protected in their jobs, at school and as parents to choose how to protect themselves from COVID19. Thank you Governor DeSantis for your leadership in making practical and informed decisions based on science.”