On Nov. 5, the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) published nearly 500 pages of emergency temporary standards (ETS) that, among other things, would have required employers with 100 or more employees to require their employees to be fully vaccinated days into the new year. Employers covered by the ETS may, but are not required to, allow unvaccinated employees to submit to weekly COVID-19 testing and wear face coverings in the workplace.
A federal appeals court has put the ETS on hold indefinitely. OSHA consequently has suspended implementing the ETS for now. What does that mean for California employers?
Relationship between Cal-OSHA and U.S. OSHA
California is one of 22 states that has its own workplace safety agencies. Federal law requires such state agencies to adopt standards “at least as effective as” the federal emergency temporary standards within 30 days of adoption of the federal standards.
The California Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board (OSHSB) was set to do just that last Thursday on an expedited basis. The state’s existing emergency temporary standards contain no vaccine mandate or weekly testing requirement for unvaccinated employees. OSHSB intended to adopt the federal ETS through the “Horcher” process, named for the sponsoring legislator, by adopting state standards “identical to the federal standard with the exception of editorial and format differences.”
Fed mandate on hold
Not now. On Nov. 12, the New Orleans-based 5th...
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