the definite sill in the details. we re hoping that comes out soon but gives guidance to employers of larger than 100 employees or more, gives guidance to employers about what requirements need to be put in place and keep in mind, we re using the word mandates but not all mandates just like united for example, the osha guidance have a mandate requirement with guidance around what is considered fully vaccinated and have testing requirements if you have employees who are not vaccinated. i think it s just an incentive to get most employers to say all right, testing requirements are complex. let s put in a vaccine mandate, we ll deal with exemptions as they come. in general most people zpli with a mandate. this morning, dr. ashish jha, was on the today show where he addressed where he thinks we are in the pandemic. here s what he had to say. we have definitely turned a corner. i think the worst is behind us.
Wednesday, February 17, 2021
Biden-Harris Administration Freezes Rules Pending Review
On January 20, 2021, Ronald A. Klain, Assistant to the President and Chief of Staff, issued a memorandum regarding “Regulatory Freeze Pending Review.” 86 Fed. Reg. 7424. For rules that have not yet taken effect, the memorandum directs the heads of executive departments and agencies to consider postponing the rules’ effective dates for 60 days from the date of the memorandum for the purpose of reviewing any questions of fact, law, and policy the rules may raise. For postponed rules, during the 60-day period, the memorandum asks agencies to consider opening a 30-day comment period to allow interested parties to provide comments about issues of fact, law, and policy raised by those rules, and consider pending petitions for reconsideration involving such rules. Where necessary to continue to review these questions of fact, law, and policy, agencies should consider further delaying, o
Wednesday, February 17, 2021
On 21 January 2021, President Biden issued an executive order directing the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health to issue new guidance for employers in an effort to assure more stringent worker safety standards to better protect workers from COVID-19.
1 While some existing OSHA standards, such as those for personal protective equipment
2 and respiratory protection,
3 could be applied in a way to help protect workers from exposure to COVID-19, OSHA has not yet issued a rule that specifically addresses how to control hazards posed by COVID-19. The executive order also requires OSHA to consider whether any emergency temporary standard on COVID-19 is needed and, if so, to issue it by 15 March 2021. This new guidance is likely the groundwork for more robust enforcement of, and investigations into, COVID-19 workplace safety.
Executive Order issued on January 21, 2021. The guidance is not a standard or regulation and creates no legal obligations for employers, but it is a step toward fulfilling a Biden campaign pledge that OSHA would “immediately release and enforce an Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS) to give employers … enforceable guidance on what to do to reduce the spread of COVID.” In 2020, President Donald Trump’s Labor Secretary, Eugene Scalia, declined to enact such an emergency temporary standard, and instead relied upon existing standards that address Respiratory Protection, Personal Protective Equipment, Sanitation, Recordkeeping and the General Duty Clause, which requires employers to provide “employment and a place of employment [that] [is] free from recognized hazards that are causing or are likely to cause death or serious physical harm to [its] employees.”