Late last week, President Biden announced two executive actions that could have a significant impact on CWC members’ COVID-19 policies and practices: (1) a new Executive Order (E.O.) requiring covered federal contractors and subcontractors to “comply with all guidance for contractor or subcontractor workplace locations published by the Safer Federal Workforce Task Force”; and (2) a directive to the Labor Department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to develop and issue an emergency temporary standard applicable to all private sector employers with 100 or more employees requiring that their workers be vaccinated.
Importantly, as explained in more detail below, Executive Order 14042, Ensuring Adequate COVID Safety Protocols for Federal Contractors, will apply only to those federal contractors and subcontractors that enter into new or modified federal contracts on or after October 15, 2021, and further details will not be known until the “Task Force” issues its guidance on September 24, 2021. Similarly, we have no further information as to when OSHA will publish its emergency rule and how and when companies will be expected to comply. Indeed, at this point both of these mandates raise more questions than they answer.
Members of the Center for Workplace Compliance (CWC) can read more here.