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R&R Insurance Blog

Federal Court Reinstates OSHA Vaccination Mandate for Private Employers With 100 or More Employees

Posted by Pete Frittitta

legalupdate

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration's (OSHA's) vaccine-or-testing Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS) is back on again. 

On Friday, December 17th, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals lifted the stay of OSHA's emergency temporary standard (ETS) requiring private sector employers with at least 100 employees to ensure workers are either vaccinated or tested weekly and wear masks. With the stay lifted, employers must comply with the requirements outlined in the ETS.

Click here to download R&R Insurance's summary of reinstatement with important dates for employers.

In response, OSHA stated that it “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. OSHA will work closely with the regulated community to provide compliance assistance.” 

KEY TAKEAWAY ON THIS CHANGE: Affected employers now have until January 10th, 2022 to comply with the requirements that were initially slated to begin on December 6th, 2021. Also, weekly testing requirements for unvaccinated employees with an original deadline of January 4th, 2022 is now delayed until February 9th, 2022.

ETS opponents have already filed an appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court challenging the Sixth Circuit’s decision. R&R will continue to monitor developments and provide you with updates and resources that pertain to these compliance requirements as they occur. For more information and resources, click here to navigate to our dedicated OSHA Vaccine Mandate Compliance webpage.

Click here to view the full Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals opinion to dissolve the stay order as well the dissenting opinion.

Topics: OSHA Compliance, OSHA, regulations

Are Municipalities Covered by OSHA?

Posted by Bill King II

Recently one of our LWMMI (League of Wisconsin Municipalities) insureds asked this question, "Are municipalities (and related entities) covered by OSHA?" and an issue of The Municipality, confirmed a response we initially provided...

"Local governments are not subject to state regulations, which are at least as stringent as OSHA, does not have jurisdiction over the state or local governments because the definition of "employer" under the OSHA Act of 1970 specifically excludes states and any political subdivision of a state."

"Instead, the State of Wisconsin has jurisdiction and the Wisconsin Statutes requires that the Department of Commerce adopt, by administrative rule, standards to protect the safety and health of public employees. These standards must provide protection at least equal to that provided to private sector employees under OSHA standards." - The Municipality (a publication of the League of Wisconsin Municipalities)

Topics: Wisconsin, Safety, OSHA, Health, regulations, OSHA standards, local governments, public employees, jurisdiction, LWMMI, employees, Department of Commerce, state governments, Municipalities LWMMI, municipalities