ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ Seeks Meeting with White House; Engaged Legal Counsel
On October 12, the U.S. Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) sent its draft emergency temporary standard (ETS) to the White House for review, a signal that a final ETS could be issued within a matter of days or weeks. The OSHA ETS will require all employers with 100 or more employees to ensure their workforce is either fully vaccinated against COVID-19 or mandate that any workers who remain unvaccinated produce a negative test result on at least a weekly basis. ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ plans to meet with the White House to share about the ETS. It should be noted, however, that ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ engaged outside legal counsel weeks ago to provide a legal memorandum that identifies the standards that OSHA must meet to justify using the ETS process instead of the normal administrative procedures that are typically employed. After ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ reviews the final, published ETS, the association will measure it against its legal memorandum to determine whether a court challenge is warranted and evaluate our chances for success.
ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ and its members have encouraged voluntary COVID-19 vaccination for their employees since the vaccines became available. The construction industry has proven throughout the pandemic that it can work in a safe and essential manner. OSHA has previously deemed many construction activities as low exposure risks.
For more information, contact Kevin Cannon at kevin.cannon@agc.org or Nazia Shah at Nazia.shah@agc.org