OSHA addresses vaccine mandates

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) recently updated its recommendations for the actions you should take to keep your workplaces safe during the COVID-19 outbreak. Throughout the pandemic, OSHA guidance has evolved to comport with changing recommendations published by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the most recent revisions (issued on August 13, 2021) carry on the trend. While the revised guidance includes a disclaimer that it is “not a standard or regulation, and it creates no new legal obligations,” the recommendations add to a growing chorus of governmental agencies pressing employers on the issues of employee vaccinations and masking.

Agency favors imposing vaccine mandates

Perhaps the most notable addition to OSHA’s guidance is the explicit suggestion that employers should “consider adopting policies requiring workers to get vaccinated or undergo regular COVID-19 testing—in addition to mask wearing and physical distancing—if they remain unvaccinated.” So, for the first time, the agency has advocated for employers to impose vaccine mandates. Up to this point, the agency (like many of its federal and state counterparts) had pushed employers to “strongly encourage” vaccination among workers and “facilitate” employee efforts to get the shots.

OSHA’s use of the word “consider” in its recommendation is no doubt intentional, but the agency stops short of explicitly recommending a vaccine mandate or testing. Instead, employers are advised to do what the guidance recommends—consider—whether they want to mandate vaccines or testing at their workplaces.