On November 18, 2021, Florida Governor DeSantis signed House Bill 1B into law, imposing a series of requirements on employers in the Sunshine State who seek to impose COVID-19 vaccination mandates on their workforce. The statute itself left employers grappling with many questions as to the scope of the law, definitions of key terms, and methods of enforcement.
Some of these questions were answered on December 2, 2021, when the Florida Department of Legal Affairs issued Emergency Rule 2ER21-1 (the “Emergency Rule”) defining various terms used in the Florida law and establishing the complaint procedure for challenges to private employer vaccine mandates under sections 381.00317(3) and (4), Florida Statutes. The Department of Legal Affairs also provided a list of answers to 11 corresponding Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs). These FAQs and Emergency Rule come at a time when courts are still deciding the legal challenges brought against the various COVID-19 mandates issued by the federal government, further contributing to the (seemingly) ever-changing COVID-19 vaccine mandate landscape.
Specifically in the Emergency Rule, the Department of Legal Affairs defined the following five terms: “department,” “employee,” “independent contractor,” “private employer,” and “functional equivalent of termination.”
An “employee” under this Emergency Rule is defined as "any person who receives remuneration from a private employer for the performance of any work or...
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