Concerns with mandating COVID-19 vaccination and testing

A likely vaccination mandate will create legal and labor challenges. The poultry industry may have a better plan for increasing vaccination.

Wooden Pieces Domino Effect Stopping Fall With A Covid-19 Vial Vaccine, Next To Stand Wooden Pieces
Wooden Pieces Domino Effect Stopping Fall With A Covid-19 Vial Vaccine, Next To Stand Wooden Pieces
Programs that educate, provide positive communication and resources will likely provide more successful results than mandatory standards. (oasisamuel | BigStock.com)

A likely vaccination mandate will create legal and labor challenges. The poultry industry may have a better plan for increasing vaccination.

On September 9, 2021, President Joe Biden announced new mandates meant to reduce the spread of the COVID-19 virus. He announced that the administration issued an executive order which requires private businesses to ensure their employees were vaccinated

Emergency temporary standard

The executive order directed the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to issue a new Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS) requiring verification that employees are fully vaccinated if a business employs 100 or more. 

The plan will seek to reduce the number of unvaccinated workers through executive and regulatory powers. In June 2021, when OSHA issued its first COVID-19 ETS, it was limited solely to the healthcare industry. With increases in August 2021 and September 2021, we see the move to an all-industry ETS that will likely cover vaccines, testing and much more. 

It will also require weekly COVID-19 tests for those employees that cannot receive the vaccination because of medical conditions or religious objections. Employers must pay for time off to receive the vaccine, as well as time to recover from side effects.

The proposed ETS may also include requirements for written response programs, mask usage, worker training on mitigation and sanitation requirements, ventilation controls, recordkeeping and reporting. 

Labor and legal challenges

The already challenged labor market is at risk of further turmoil as workers resign in the face of mandatory vaccinations and testing. A large workplace may be staffed to handle resignations. A smaller workplace may be unable to operate with positions left vacant from worker departures. 

The legal challenge OSHA may face is determining if COVID-19 presents a grave danger to all persons in a workplace, making it mandatory that all workers need vaccinations and/or testing. 

While OSHA was developing its first ETS, it concluded that only workplaces providing healthcare services faced enough danger to warrant an ETS. However, even that ETS did not mandate vaccinations or testing. That decision, just a few months earlier, may impact a legal challenge of the latest ETS.

An alternative strategy 

Instead of developing another ETS, OSHA should direct its efforts to assist industries with valuable tools to educate and encourage workers to get the vaccine. Programs designed to educate while providing positive communication and resources will likely provide more successful results than mandatory standards that confuse and scare. 

The poultry industry has witnessed success in utilizing worker education and communication tools resulting in workers' confidence to obtain vaccinations. These efforts not only positively impact workers in the facilities but the families and the communities they serve.

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