Employers who hoped that 2021 would bring more consistent—and consistently reliable—requirements and guidance on COVID-19 risk mitigation measures than we had in 2020 were disappointed. 2021 was every bit as confounding as 2020. The first half of 2021 saw a mad rush for vaccinations, which suggested the final US vaccination percentages would be high. By fall, however, it was clear that the vaccine-reluctant would be hard to persuade to change their minds. Government and private employers tried “carrot” approaches—prizes, bonuses and health premium reductions to name a few—and “stick” approaches, primarily vaccine mandates. The “carrots” were not attractive enough and vaccine mandates caused an avalanche of religious reasonable accommodation requests overwhelming employers’ human resources departments. This set the stage for President Biden’s Executive Order 14042, “Ensuring Chasing Compliance—A Year of Uncertainty in COVID-19 Workplace Safety Law Adequate COVID Safety Protocols for Federal Contractors” (the EO) and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s COVID-19 Vaccination and Testing Emergency Temporary Standard (the ETS). The EO and the ETS were announced as vaccine mandates. However, both included reasonable accommodation carve-outs for vaccine mandates and the ETS permitted employers to use the option of weekly testing or vaccination. Employers covered by the EO did not have to follow the ETS. All private employers with 100 or more employees who were not...
PHOTO: RSPCA VIA AFP LONDON - An animal welfare charity has revealed it rescued more than 250 dogs from one UK home, with a photo of the scene prompting “disbelief” and false claims that the image...