Legal Alert: An Employer’s Guide to Preparing for the 2021 OSHA ETS Vaccine Mandate

On September 9, 2021, President Biden announced that he ordered OSHA to develop an emergency temporary standard (ETS) requiring private employers with 100 or more employees to mandate that employees either receive one of the three available COVID-19 vaccines or submit to weekly COVID-19 testing. On November 4, 2021, OSHA released an unpublished version of the COVID-19 Vaccination and Testing Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS). 

Key dates for compliance:

• December 5, 2021: unvaccinated employees must begin wearing masks or face coverings in the workplace



• January 4, 2022: all covered employees must be fully vaccinated or undergo weekly COVID-19 testing

Employers who have been overwhelmed with the OSHA ETS mandate and what their next steps are can use this handy task list to guide them as we await a definitive court ruling on the mandate itself. Employers should begin this work now in the event a court of final decision does not invalidate the mandate, as some of the processes will require thoughtful consideration and budgeting of time and resources.

You can find expanded guidance by downloading our related task list to learn more about the steps that employers should take in response to this mandate. 

Additional Resources: 

• For more information about the vaccine mandates, read our summary and expanded guidance on our website.



• To stay up to date on legal challenges to these vaccine mandates, register to join our December 2 webinar with experts Stacy Barrow and Danielle Capilla. 

The information contained herein should be understood to be general insurance brokerage information only and does not constitute advice for any particular situation or fact pattern and cannot be relied upon as such. Statements concerning financial, regulatory or legal matters are based on general observations as an insurance broker and may not be relied upon as financial, regulatory or legal advice. This document is owned by Alera Group, Inc., and its contents may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without the written permission of Alera Group, Inc. Updated as of 11/11/2021.