Vaccination and Testing Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS)

The Federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration issued on November 5, 2021 an emergency temporary standard (ETS) to protect unvaccinated employees of large employers (100 employees or more) from COVID-19.  Employers with 100 or more employees are now required to have a policy in place to either require all employees receive the COVID-19 vaccination or require weekly testing of all employees.  Employees must be vaccinated by January 4, 2022 or require unvaccinated employees to produce a negative test on at least a weekly basis. All employers must ensure their employees receive either two doses of Pfizer or Moderna, or one dose of Johnson & Johnson vaccine.  Employees who do not receive the vaccination must provide a verified negative test on a weekly basis and wear a face mask while in the workplace.  All covered employees are to be provided paid time to receive vaccinations, and if needed, sick leave to recover from side effects.  Compliance dates: December 5, 2021 for vaccination shots and masking for unvaccinated employees; January 4, 2022 for weekly testing.  Additional Fed/OSHA COVID materials can be found here.  As we previously reported, the Cal/OSHA Standards Board is to address this issue at its next board meeting.
Update: As soon as this ETS was issued, the following day on November 6th the Federal Appeals Court has issued an order to “stay” or temporarily stop the ETS from taking effect.  The Association will closely monitor this issue.