US firms await fine print of vaccination-or-test rule

White House officials signal enforcement deadline, penalties to be unveiled soon

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 COVID19 pandemic is almost ready to see the light of day.

An obscure 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 $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. The White House sees it as a potent tool to winnow down the roughly 65 million Americans who have thus far refused to get a shot.

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 last week, federal officials have hosted more than two dozen listening sessions with industry groups, businesses and advocacy organizations. Some have been supportive of the rule, others opposed, but all are eager to learn more about the fine print of the regulation.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other groups that represent large employers are worried that the proposal’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.

“We really stressed the concern about employers losing employees, and what that would mean in the context of current supply-chain challenges and the upcoming holiday season,” said Marc Freedman, vice president for employment policy at the Chamber of Commerce.

Freedman, who took part in the chamber’s call with administration officials, said the 100-worker threshold would also hurt job creation by giving employers who have 90 or 95 employees a reason not to expand.

It is not clear how the business community will respond once the final rule is published.

Business officials said legal challenges are more likely to come from Republican-led states such as Texas.