Spartanburg Area Chamber of Commerce issued the following announcement on September 13.
At OneSpartanburg, Inc., it’s our responsibility to keep our business community informed about legislation and regulations that affect them.
On Thursday, the White House announced the Path Out of the Pandemic COVID-19 Action Plan. The plan includes a Department of Labor Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) plan to require all employers with 100 or more employees to ensure their workforce is fully-vaccinated, and to require workers who are unvaccinated to produce a negative COVID-19 test result on a weekly basis before coming to work.
The rule has been announced but is still in the process of being fully confirmed. No start date has been announced, but federal officials have been instructed to produce a more detailed plan within one week.
OSHA will issue an Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS) to implement the Executive Order, likely within 3-4 weeks. It will be effective immediately upon publication in the Federal Register.
South Carolina is one of 22 states with OSHA-approved state plan. That means SC employers should not be immediately subject to the new federal OSHA mandate, and the state would have 30 days to adopt a rule in compliance with the new OSHA standard.
Below are questions to be answered by the OSHA regulation:
- Does it apply to subcontractors who work for a company that has 100+ employees?
- Does a subcontracting workforce (1099 employees) count to a business' total of 100+ employees?
- What, aside from fines, are the liability issues if a business doesn't follow the OSHA requirement?
- Will the federal government pay for weekly testing for employees, or will the employer or employee have to pay?
Original source can be found here.
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