The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit on Dec. 17 dissolved the Fifth Circuit’s stay of the Vaccination and Testing Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS). The Department of Labor (DOL) and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) can now resume implementing the workplace health standard.
To account for any uncertainty created by the stay, OSHA is exercising enforcement discretion with respect to the ETS compliance dates. To provide employers with sufficient time to come into compliance, OSHA will not issue citations for noncompliance with any requirements of the ETS before January 10 and will not issue citations for noncompliance with the standard’s testing requirements before February 9, so long as an employer is exercising reasonable, good faith efforts to come into compliance with the standard.
The Department of Labor will provide a briefing with senior DOL and OSHA officials to discuss recent developments and updated guidance related to the rule.
Also, a prerecorded webinar on the content of the ETS is available here.
ETS Briefing schedule:
· Wednesday, 12/22/21 from 2-2:45pm ET
o RSVP here.
More information on the ETS can be found at these links:
· Vaccination and Testing ETS landing page
· Full Vaccination and Testing ETS text
· Vaccination and Testing ETS fact sheet
· Vaccination and Testing ETS FAQs
NATSO continues to advocate on this issue and will file comments with OSHA in January that outline our concerns with the ETS and underscore our importance to the supply chain. NATSO members should prepare to comply with the vaccine and test rule and may log in here for an in-depth analysis on what to expect in coming weeks.
NATSO members may log in here to access compliance documents.
NATSO recently hosted a podcast with Robert Baker, a partner with Chartwell Law, to answer questions on the OSHA ETS requirement. The podcast provides advice on how to comply with the ETS rule. Baker answered specific questions from NATSO members on religious exemptions, which tests are considered acceptable and more.
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