Whiplash on U.S. Vaccine Mandate Leaves Employers ‘Totally Confused’
- Companies are struggling to figure out what to do as legal battles and rising Covid cases complicate their plans. Even up in the air: What does “fully vaccinated” mean?
| The marching orders from the Biden administration in November had seemed clear — large employers were to get their workers fully vaccinated by early next year, or make sure the workers were tested weekly. But a little over a month later, the Labor Department’s vaccine rule has been swept into confusion and uncertainty by legal battles, shifting deadlines and rising Covid case counts that throw the very definition of fully vaccinated into question. | The spread of the highly transmissible Omicron variant has seemingly bolstered the government’s argument, at the heart of its legal battle over the rule, that the virus remains a grave threat to workers. But the recent surge in cases has raised the issue of whether the government will take its requirements further — even as the original rule remains contentious — and ask employers to mandate booster shots, too. The country’s testing capacity has also been strained, adding to concerns that companies will be unable to meet the rule’s testing requirements. |
El latigazo en el mandato de vacunas de EE. UU. Deja a los empleadores “totalmente confundidos”
“Mis clientes están totalmente confundidos como, francamente, yo”, dijo el sábado Erin McLaughlin, abogada laboral y de empleo en Buchanan, Ingersoll & Rooney. “Mi sensación es que hay muchos empleadores luchando para intentar implementar sus programas de mandato”.
Ninguna empresa se ha librado del torbellino de cambios en la última semana, provocados por el aumento en los casos de Covid que, en algunos casos, han reducido su fuerza laboral. Luego, el viernes, un tribunal de apelaciones levantó el bloqueo legal sobre la regla de la vacuna, aunque las apelaciones al fallo se presentaron de inmediato, dejando el estatus legal de la regla en el aire. El sábado, horas después del fallo de la corte de apelaciones, la Administración de Salud y Seguridad Ocupacional del Departamento de Trabajo instó a los empleadores a comenzar a trabajar para cumplir. Pero OSHA también les dio a los patronos cierto margen de maniobra, retrasando la aplicación total de la regla hasta febrero, reconociendo que a pesar de todas sus mejores intenciones, la implementación de la regla ha sido confusa.
The Biden administration is dealing with the uncertainty of a novel virus, at least he is not trying to downplay its importance like other president. |
La administración Biden está lidiando con la incertidumbre de un virus nuevo, al menos no está tratando de minimizar su importancia como otro presidente. |