Employment Lawyer Chris McKinney Explains New OSHA Vaccine Mandate
San Antonio employment lawyer Chris McKinney explains OSHA’s new employer mandate requiring vaccinations of all employees. The new rule goes into effect in January 2022. Here are the details.
Transcript:
- Hi everybody. This is Texas employment lawyer, Chris McKinney. And I want to talk to you today about a new rule that has been issued by OSHA, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, regarding COVID testing. We're getting a lot of calls about this new rule, and so there's a couple of things that I want to make sure all employees know about how the rule will work, if it's implemented, as it is currently drafted. Now, the new rule was issued just this week, and it is scheduled to go into effect in January of 2022. Under this new rule, all employers who have more than 100 employees will be required to mandate that all of their employees either become vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus or agree to a weekly testing regime to test to see if they're infected or not. So, one of the things that's important to remember under this new rule is that employers don't have any choice in the matter. They're being required by the government to make sure that all of their employees are either vaccinated or tested. So it doesn't do any good to become angry with your employer over this rule, because the employer really doesn't have any choice in the matter. So that's one thing to keep in mind. Secondly, and I see a lot of confusion about this, it's important for employees to understand that they are not required under this new rule to become vaccinated. Let me repeat that. Employees are not required to become vaccinated by this new rule. Instead, their employers will mandate that they either become vaccinated on the one hand, or on the other hand, that they agree to a weekly testing regime where they go in and get a COVID test every week, just to make sure that they don't have the virus. So that's a very important point. Right now, we've been going through a period where employees who don't want to take the vaccine for whatever reason have been trying to fit within just a few types of exceptions that are currently available under the law, one being a religious exemption, and the other being a medical exemption. Well, there's a lot of people who maybe don't want to take the vaccine, because maybe they don't think it's scientifically proven, or for whatever reason, but they don't really clearly fit within either of these two rather narrow exemptions. Under this new rule, employees are actually given some cover for this issue, in that while it does seem like more vaccination is being required under the rule, and indeed it is, employers are being required to mandate this vaccination or testing regime, it is providing a specific carve out for any employee that for any reason, doesn't want to take the vaccine. You don't need to fit within any special type of exemption. You just need to ask for it, and then your employer will be required to allow you to avoid becoming vaccinated, and instead you'll just need to go get a COVID test once a week and present those results to your employer. Last important point to remember with this new rule, assuming it's implemented is it's currently drafted, is that employers will be required to provide some paid sick leave time for those that are getting the vaccine, and if there's any health effects following the vaccine, if you're sick for a day or two, that sort of thing, then employers will be required to provide paid PTO for employees who are getting the vaccine. Importantly, however, employers are not going to be required to pay for COVID testing for any employees who decide to opt out of the vaccine requirement and into the testing requirement instead. In those cases, the cost of the weekly COVID testing will be born by the employees. So that's something important to know. Obviously, if there's any changes in the rule, we will keep you updated here on this channel. So please don't forget to like and subscribe. That way you'll be notified if we provide any additional updates. It also helps people find us, and we appreciate that very much. So until next time, take care.
