5 things larger employers should do to comply with OSHA vaccine rules

Employers with more than 100 employees have begun scrambling to comply with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s new emergency temporary standard (ETS) for COVID-19 vaccinations and testing. To learn more about five things larger employers should do to adhere to the new rules, read on.

How we got here

OSHA’s ETS, announced on November 4, says covered employers “must develop, implement, and enforce a mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policy, with an exception for employers that instead adopt a policy requiring employees to either get vaccinated or elect to undergo regular COVID-19 testing and wear a face covering at work in lieu of vaccination.”

On the same day, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued similar guidance for certain healthcare organizations and their employees. The coordinated publication of the two rules helps minimize confusion in situations where a large healthcare organization might have been covered by both sets of rules.

In establishing the ETS, OSHA determined COVID-19 presents a grave danger to unvaccinated workers because they are more likely to contract and transmit the virus in the workplace than vaccinated workers. According to the agency, the most effective and efficient control available against the pandemic is vaccination.