OSHA Withdrawing COVID-19 Vaccination/Testing Mandate

Decision comes after SCOTUS blocked emergency temporary standard

1/25/2022

OSHA is withdrawing its COVID-19 vaccine and testing emergency temporary standard for large employers, effective Jan. 26.

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration will withdraw the vaccination and testing emergency temporary standard (ETS), which was issued last November with the aim of protecting unvaccinated workers at large employers with 100 or more employees from workplace exposure to COVID-19. The withdrawal will take effect Jan. 26.

Businesses such as supermarkets may not have seen the last of this measure, however.

“Although OSHA is withdrawing the vaccination and testing ETS as an enforceable emergency temporary standard, the agency is not withdrawing the ETS as a proposed rule,” OSHA noted in a statement. “The agency is prioritizing its resources to focus on finalizing a permanent COVID-19 Healthcare Standard.”

Earlier this month, the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to block the Biden Administration from enforcing the vaccine-or-testing mandate was viewed as a decisive win by the grocery industry, members of which had asked to be exempted from such a mandate.