President Biden issued two distinct directives on September 9: the Executive Order on Requiring Coronavirus Disease 2019 Vaccination for Federal Employees and the Path out of the Pandemic plan.
What do they mean for Indiana businesses?
Unfortunately, that isn’t definitive at this point. There will be an emergency rulemaking for one and guidance issued by the federal government for the other. It’s something we will continue to monitor and communicate with you as things progress.
First is the executive order that is applicable to federal employees and employees of federal contractors. The executive order outlines what should be implemented over the next month and how, but the Safer Federal Workforce Task Force will issue supplemental guidance by today that will further explain the requirements and any exceptions.
President Biden’s additional COVID-19 Action Plan would require all employers with over 100 employees to ensure their workers are vaccinated or tested weekly. The Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is developing a rule to put that into action to ensure those workforces are fully vaccinated or require any workers who remain unvaccinated to produce a negative test result on at least a weekly basis before coming to work. OSHA will issue an Emergency Temporary Standard to implement this requirement, which will impact over 80 million workers in private sector businesses.
The Indiana Chamber released a statement on the President’s vaccine mandate for companies with more than 100 employees.
Resource: Greg Ellis at (317) 264-6881 or email: gellis@indianachamber.com
