The Biden administration’s vaccine mandate will require unvaccinated workers at private businesses to foot the bill for weekly COVID-19 tests and masks, two sources close to the administration told Bloomberg last week.
The emergency rule, which is expected to be announced this week by the Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration, applies to companies with at least 100 employees. However, the report said there would be certain exceptions to the rule.
Employers would be required to pay for tests and masks if a worker qualifies for a religious exemption under the law or if the worker is exempt under provisions in the Americans with Disabilities Act. Companies may also be required to shoulder testing costs if they are covered under a union’s collective bargaining agreement.
A final decision on the parameters of the rule must still be approved by the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. The rule is expected to contain an implementation period that would give businesses time to comply before facing citations of up to $14,000 per violation.
The federal mandate is already being challenged in Texas, where Gov. Greg Abbott (R)
recently signed an executive order banning employers from enforcing vaccine mandates if employees object for a broader range of reasons than the federal order allows. Iowa lawmakers also passed a law that challenges the federal vaccine mandate.
A poll last month by the Associated Press and NORC at the University of Chicago found that more than half of adults polled supported the federal vaccine mandate.
