MIAMI – President Joe Biden’s administration wants the employees of companies with a personnel of 100 or more to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by Jan. 4, or agree to undergo weekly coronavirus testing and wear a mask while in the workplace starting Dec. 5.
The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration issued the emergency temporary standard and warned that there will be nearly $14,000 per violation. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services will be enforcing a vaccine mandate on facilities with funding from the program.
Gov. Ron DeSantis has made it clear he will not only not be helping the feds to enforce the COVID-19-related mandates but he is going to fight it in court. Florida, Georgia, and Alabama filed a lawsuit to contest the new federal requirements.
“The federal government can’t just unilaterally impose medical policy under the guise of workplace regulation,” DeSantis said during a news conference in Tallahassee.
There are already companies and health facilities implementing these rules in South Florida. Attorney Michael Elkins, of Fort Lauderdale, said employers should have a compliance plan in place by Dec. 5 just in case the rule survives the early legal challenges.
“OSHA does not have the personnel to have OSHA individual knocking on employers door to door. That is not what is going to happen here, so what you are likely going to see, assuming this rule survives, is if you are an employer that has an OSHA investigation come up, this will be part of that investigation automatically,” Elkins said, adding that employers in the 100 to 300 threshold will face “a ton of administrative issues.”
The Miami-based Ryder System, Inc., a supplier of transportation and supply chain management products that employs some 39,000 people nationwide, is assessing the repercussions. Frank Lopez, Ryder’s chief human resources officer, said executives expect the new rules to apply.
“Like many employers, Ryder has just begun to review the federal vaccination or testing rule,” Lopez said in a statement.
The healthcare sector in South Florida has been proactive. Baptist Health already has a vaccine mandate and about 99% of employees are in compliance. The Jackson Health System already has restrictions for unvaccinated employees and about 84% of the employees have been vaccinated.
“Even though we are experiencing staffing shortages in some clinical positions, our decision to implement this new vaccine policy for employees and physicians was driven by our commitment to protect the health and wellbeing of our workforce, our patients, and our community,” a JHS representative said in a statement.
Rep. Carlos A. Gimenez released a statement saying there is no need for full vaccine mandates in the workplace, and unvaccinated workers should continue their line of work with proper testing and mask requirements.
“We must do everything in our power to ensure our first responders and frontline workers remain protected, now, and in the future, regardless of their vaccination status or the state in which they live,” Gimenez said in a statement.