OSHA Withdraws Vaccine/Test Mandate ETS

A few weeks after the Supreme Court halted OSHA’s Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS) requiring businesses with 100+ employees to have a policy requiring vaccines or weekly testing, OSHA has withdrawn the ETS.  By withdrawing the ETS, it effectively ends all legal challenges that could take place.

However, while it has withdrawn the ETS, OSHA maintains that they intend to move forward with its’ proposal to issue a permanent standard, under the rulemaking provisions of the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSH Act).  This process will follow the typical rule making process, in which there will be a rulemaking notice/comment process, as opposed to the emergency temporary standard, which is more rushed.

While the federal OSHA ETS is no more, expect more local rules to take place.  For example, in our home base of Minnesota, both Minneapolis and Saint Paul have issued mandates requiring most indoor businesses to mandate vaccinations, or a negative test for all patrons aged 5+.

This blog article is intended for general information purposes only and should not be construed as legal advice or opinion.  Contact myHRcounsel with questions about the use and enforcement of vaccine mandates. As a reminder, we are only just receiving the information, and will continue to track any and all updates going forward.