The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has issued an emergency
temporary standard (ETS)to minimize the risk of COVID-19 transmission in the
workplace. The ETS establishes binding requirements to protect unvaccinated
employees of large employers (100 or more employees from the risk of contracting
COVID-19 in the workplace.
COVID-19 was not known to exist until January
2020, and since then nearly 745,000 people, many
of them workers, have died from the disease in the
U.S. alone. At the present time, workers are
continually becoming seriously ill and dying as a
result of occupational exposures to COVID-19.
OSHA expects that the Vaccination and Testing ETS
will result in approximately 23 million individuals
becoming vaccinated. [Workers who remain unvaccinated must undergo weekly testing and wear face-coverings.]
The agency has
conservatively estimated that the ETS will prevent
over 6,500 deaths and over 250,000
hospitalizations. In issuing the ETS, OSHA has made
several important determinations:
Unvaccinated Workers Face Grave Danger:
Unvaccinated workers are much more likely to
contract and transmit COVID-19 in the workplace
than vaccinated workers. OSHA has determined that
many employees in the U.S. who are not fully
vaccinated against COVID-19 face grave danger from
exposure to COVID-19 in the workplace.
This finding
of grave danger is based on the severe health
consequences associated with exposure to the virus
along with evidence demonstrating the
transmissibility of the virus in the workplace and the
prevalence of infections in employee populations.
The evidence for the finding of a grave danger is in
Section III.A. of the ETS preamble.
An ETS is Necessary:
Workers are becoming seriously ill and dying as a
result of occupational exposures to COVID-19, when
a simple measure, vaccination, can largely prevent
those deaths and illnesses. The ETS protects these
workers through the most effective and efficient
control available – vaccination – and further
protects workers who remain unvaccinated through
required regular testing, use of face coverings, and
removal of all infected employees from the
workplace.
OSHA also concludes, based on its
enforcement experience during the pandemic to
date, that continued reliance on existing standards
and regulations, the General Duty Clause of the
OSH Act, and workplace guidance, in lieu of an ETS,
is not adequate to protect unvaccinated employees
from COVID-19. Thus, OSHA has also determined
that an ETS is necessary to protect unvaccinated
workers from the risk of contracting COVID-19 at
work. The evidence for the need for the ETS is in
Section III.B.of the ETS preamble.
The ETS is Limited to Employers with 100 or
More Employees:
In light of the unique occupational safety and health
dangers presented by COVID-19, and against the
backdrop of the uncertain economic environment of
a pandemic, OSHA is proceeding in a stepwise
fashion in addressing the emergency this rule
covers. OSHA is confident that employers with 100
or more employees have the administrative capacity
to implement the standard’s requirements
promptly, but is less confident that smaller
employers can do so without undue disruption.
OSHA needs additional time to assess the capacity
of smaller employers, and is seeking comment to
help the agency make that determination.
Nonetheless, the agency is acting to protect workers
now in adopting a standard that will reach two-thirds of all private-sector workers in the nation,
including those working in the largest facilities,
where the most deadly outbreaks of COVID-19 can
occur. Additional information on the scope of the
ETS is found in Section VI.B. of the ETS preamble.
The ETS is Feasible:
OSHA has evaluated the feasibility of this ETS and
has determined that the requirements of the ETS
are both economically and technologically
feasible. The evidence for feasibility is found in
Section IV. of the ETS preamble.
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