Guidance provided and lawsuits filed in response to Biden administration’s vaccine mandate

The law firm of Seyfarth Shaw has posted guidance for large employers to help them meet OSHA’S Vaccination and Testing Emergency Temporary Standard. The ETS requires covered employers, those with 100 or more employees, to meet new obligations beginning Dec. 5 with an ultimate “vaccination or testing” deadline of Jan. 4, 2022, subject to required accommodations. View the guidance from Seyfarth Shaw at: https://bit.ly/3qthvsb A number of lawsuits have been filed in opposition to the Biden administration’s coronavirus vaccine mandate, and a threejudge panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in New Orleans has extended its block against the mandate. However, the Justice Department is arguing that the mandate is needed to prevent the loss of “dozens or even hundreds of lives per day, in addition to large numbers of hospitalizations, other serious health effects, and tremendous costs.”

While the ETS has been stayed, employers are continuing to prepare for the deadline, while the legal status is in flux.