On Thursday, September 9, 2021, President Biden announced new vaccine mandates for all businesses with 100 or more employees, requiring that employees of those businesses either be vaccinated or get tested once a week. If companies do not comply, they could be fined thousands of dollars per violation.
President Biden also signed an executive order which requires all federal government employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19. This order does not provide an alternative option of weekly testing. He signed an additional order which applies the same standard to employees of contractors who do business with the federal government.
Additionally, President Biden indicated he will require health care workers at facilities receiving funds from Medicare and Medicaid to be fully vaccinated, as well as educators in federal Head Start programs.
OSHA will be issuing an emergency temporary standard (ETS) which will provide further details regarding how these new requirements will be implemented and provide greater detail on how they will be applied. We will provide an update once that ETS is published.
Though these new rules will provide even more administrative burden and costs on employers, the new mandate provides greater cover to private employers of all sizes who now must either require vaccination or testing or who may choose to voluntarily require vaccination or testing. Additionally, some employees will not want to get the vaccine or have weekly tests, and, as a result, they will look to smaller employers who are not subject to the new mandate. If you have questions about how to a vaccine mandate, please reach out to the experts at Young, Cohen & Durrett, LLP at (916) 569-1700.
ADDITIONAL LEGAL UPDATES
Proposition 22 Ruled Unconstitutional
Last year, California voters passed Proposition 22, which categorized ride-share drivers as independent contractors. Recently, a Superior Court Judge found Proposition 22 unconstitutional under the state constitution, due, in part, to a section that required a seven-eighths legislative supermajority to amend the law. Uber and others have indicated that that they will appeal the decision, and Proposition 22 remains in effect as the court case continues.
Deadline to File EEO-1 Extended
Due to the pandemic’s impact on business operations, the EEOC has announced that it is extending the deadline to submit and certify 2019 and 2020 EEO-1 Component 1 Reports to Monday, October 25, 2021. The EEOC has stated that this is the final deadline, as it will not be changing the deadline again, and it encourages eligible employers to file as soon as possible. For further information, please check out the EEOC’s EEO-1 Data Collection webpage here.
Handbook Update Reminder
Because the California legislative session will be closing on September 10, 2021, we wanted to remind employers to get their employees handbooks updated to comply with the laws that will become effective in 2022. If you would like to schedule a handbook update with us, please contact Hannah Moon via email at hmoon@ycd-law.com.