Must employers follow Biden’s vaccine mandates?
Millions of health care workers across the U.S. were supposed to have their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine by this coming Monday under a mandate issued by President Joe Biden’s administration. Thanks to legal challenges, they won’t have to worry about it, at least for now.
Same goes for a Jan. 4 deadline set by the administration for businesses with at least 100 employees to ensure their workers are vaccinated or tested weekly for the virus.
Judges responding to lawsuits brought by Republican-led states, businesses and other opponents have blocked some of Biden’s most sweeping initiatives intended to drive up vaccination rates. Numerous other legal challenges are pending, contesting the Democratic president’s vaccine requirements for federal employees and contractors and members of the military, as well as mask requirements for people using public transportation.
More than four-fifths of adults nationwide already have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. But Biden contends his various workforce vaccine mandates are an important step in curtailing the virus, which has killed more than 780,000 people in the U.S.
Large business mandate
What it would do: Under a rule published by the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration on Nov. 5, businesses with 100 or more workers are to require employees to be vaccinated. If they are not, they would need to be tested weekly and wear masks while working, with exceptions for those who work alone or mostly outdoors. The rule was to go into effect Jan. 4. The requirement would affect businesses with a cumulative 84 million employees, and OSHA projected it could save 6,500 lives and prevent 250,000 hospitalizations over six months.
Who’s challenging it: The requirement is being challenged by 27 Republicanled state governments plus conservative and business groups and some individual businesses. The states mostly filed lawsuits in groups, though Indiana challenged it alone. Their arguments include that it’s the job of states, not the federal government, to deal with public health measures. The Biden administration maintains that the measure is legal. Some labor unions also contested the rule, though not for the same reasons as the Republicans and business group. They say it doesn’t go far enough to protect workers.
Where it stands: The rule is on hold. A day after states challenged the rule, a panel of three judges in the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals blocked it. At first, it was a temporary suspension, then a more permanent one. The legal challenges originally were filed in various U.S. appeals courts. The cases subsequently were consolidated into a court that was selected at random, the Cincinnati-based 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
What’s next: The Biden administration is asking the 6th Circuit to set aside the order from the 5th Circuit and allow the vaccine requirement. In the meantime, OSHA has suspended implementation of the rule. Groups that are suing want the questions decided by all the judges on the 6th Circuit rather than a panel of just some of them.