On November 4, 2021, the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issued a new Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS), requiring employers with over 100 employees to implement a mandatory COVID vaccination policy, or alternatively a policy requiring employees either to be vaccinated or be tested weekly and be masked in the workplace.
Employers must comply by December 5, 2021. We summarize the ETS requirements below.
Who Is Covered
The ETS applies to all private employers with 100 or more employees, regardless of whether the employees are full- or part-time, temporary, or seasonal, unionized, or non-unionized. Employees employed by a staffing agency do not count toward the 100 employee threshold. However, staffing agencies are themselves covered when they have over 100 employees, regardless of location.
