Tag Archives: OSHA

New Federal Vaccine Mandate Immediately Affects Employers with 100+ Employees

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The Occupational Health and Safety Administration released its new vaccine mandate as an Emergency Temporary Standard today for employers who have at least 100 employees (“large employers”). The ETS is effective on November 5, 2021, and large employers only have 60 days to fully implement their vaccination plan, so time is of the essence.

Each large employer can decide if that company is going to (1) mandate that every employee gets vaccinated (while allowing limited religious and medical exemptions) or, instead, (2) mandate that its employees have a choice between vaccination and weekly testing. However, either way, large employers have to start requiring all unvaccinated employees to be masked at all times indoors as of December 5, 2021, except when they are alone in their own closed office. The new rules are summarized here.

Here are the highlights of the Emergency Temporary Standard mandate:

Does it apply to your company?

Do you have 100 names on your payroll (full-time, part-time, temporary or seasonal workers who perform work for your company at any point on or after November 5, 2021)? If so, this ETS applies to your company. “In determining the number of employees, employers must include all employees across all of their U.S. workplaces, regardless of employees’ vaccination status or where they perform their work,” according to the FAQs released by OSHA today.

The count of employees is corporate-wide, not by individual location. Even those who are working from home are counted (although some parts of the mandate do not apply to those workers who are exclusively remote workers). Similarly, those who work exclusively outside are counted when determining if you have 100 workers, but the mandate does not apply in the same way to outside workers.

Independent contractors are not included when you are counting to 100. Neither are temporary workers that you use who are actually employed by a staffing company.

Federal contractors were already subject to a separate vaccine mandate under Executive Order 14042. Healthcare employers who receive Medicare or Medicaid funds have their own stricter vaccination ETS also released today, which does not allow for testing as an alternative to vaccination. To make it easier for all employers to comply with the differing requirements, the deadline for the federal contractor vaccination requirement has been aligned with those for the healthcare entity rule and the large employer rule. Employees falling under the any of these rules will need to have their final vaccination dose – either their second dose of Pfizer or Moderna, or single dose of Johnson & Johnson – by January 4, 2022. 

But what about Gov. Abbott’s Executive Order Saying No Vaccine Mandates in Texas?

I won’t get into all of the politics of this, but this OSHA standard preempts Gov. Abbott’s order (which he couldn’t persuade the Texas Legislature to turn into law in the last special session). The U.S. Supreme Court has already backed vaccine mandates in at least three separate instances this year. I would not count on the Supremes ruling that Gov. Abbott’s executive order will prevent OSHA from enforcing this new Emergency Temporary Standard. And you probably don’t want the exorbitant legal expense for your company to be the test case for this political pissing match between the state and the feds anyway.

What are my next steps?

Continue reading New Federal Vaccine Mandate Immediately Affects Employers with 100+ Employees →
Employees and Covid-19

Ten Ways to Get Sued by Employees During a Pandemic

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Even though the idea has been in the news recently, at the current time there is no absolute liability immunity for Texas employers from COVID-19-related claims made by employees who are exposed to the virus in your workplace or otherwise harmed during the pandemic. You can be sued for many different legal failures as an employer during this crisis, so you should know what the law expects of you right now.

The law firm of Fisher Phillips is maintaining a fascinating database of COVID-19-related cases filed so far in 2020. Their database shows that 38 COVID lawsuits have been filed in Texas for claims such as unsafe workplaces, discrimination, paid leave violations, retaliation and even wrongful death. I have no doubt those claims will continue to increase as employers struggle with all of the safety guidance and other rules burying them during this crisis.

I’ve narrowed the possibilities of a Texas employer getting sued during this global pandemic down to these ten mistakes:

Continue reading Ten Ways to Get Sued by Employees During a Pandemic →

Texas Employer Requirements for the “Great Reopening”

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Governor Greg Abbott is allowing retail businesses to reopen for curbside and home delivery on Friday, April 24, and is talking about allowing many other businesses, like hair salons, to reopen soon. But Texas employers should know that there are many requirements to protect your employees and customers from COVID-19 that you must address before you reopen.

The Department of State Health Services has condensed the “retail to go” requirements down to two pages here, and employment lawyers like me expect that similar precautions will be required as other businesses start to serve customers again.

The first decision an employer in the Texas Panhandle must face is whether to reopen at all. Gov. Abbott specifically said on Wednesday, April 22, in radio interviews, “there are some counties where the coronavirus outbreak is still progressing too rapidly, and they may not be able to fully participate in the initial phase of reopening until they get the spread of the coronavirus in their county under control.” Guess which counties he specifically named? Moore, Potter and Randall. Yes, friends, we are now a hot spot in Amarillo. The virus is not “under control” here, according to our governor.

Our area is seeing the kind of spike in COVID-19 cases that should make you at least carefully consider waiting to reopen. However, if you decide that economically you must open your retail business for curbside and delivery, or another business once allowed, here are the minimum requirements for employers, according to the DHSH guidance regarding the Texas Retail to Go Order:

Continue reading Texas Employer Requirements for the “Great Reopening” →

Workplace Posters For Free Online

There are companies that want to sell you expensive workplace posters that you don’t need to purchase because they are available for free online. Many employers are afraid that they don’t know which employment notices must be visible in the workplace, so they fall for the marketing pitch to pay for these expensive commercial posters.

As a Texas employer, have you received advertising in the mail similar to the notice pictured here? Such notices appear official, and can feel almost threatening, with warnings of penalties and fines associated with an employer failing to post current state and federal employment posters in the workplace.

Employment Poster Solicitation

It is not necessary for a Texas employer to pay $84 for the poster offered here. While it is true that posting certain notices and information is legally required, employers need not pay any company for this information. Free copies of the required posters can be found from the websites of each of the federal or Texas agencies that require them. The Texas Workforce Commission has graciously gathered a list of these posters into one place for you here.

Not only are you out the money if you buy one of these expensive posters, but these for-profit posters could actually hurt you if they promise rights to your employees that the law does not give them (such as promising Family and Medical Leave rights if the company has less than 50 employees and isn’t required to provide Family and Medical Leave). You don’t want to obligate yourself to things the law doesn’t require you to provide. The poster “invoice” pictured here didn’t ask the size of the employer’s workforce and apparently was not tailored to the laws to which a particular employer was subject.

As of August 2015, the posters that you as a Texas employer must have on your bulletin board, depending on the size of your workforce, are as follows: Continue reading Workplace Posters For Free Online →

More Businesses Are Now Required to Keep Records of Work-Related Injuries

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As of January 1, 2015, many employers who were previously exempt from the OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) requirements of tracking work-related injuries, will now have to prepare and maintain records of occupational injuries and illnesses using OSHA 300, 301, and 300A forms. If you have more than 10 employees, you may be one of those employers who has never had to worry about this before but will have to start this recordkeeping at the beginning of the new year.

Any employer of any size must report all work-related fatalities to OSHA within 8 hours. Under the new rule, all employers are also now required to report all work-related in-patient hospitalizations, amputations and loss of an eye within 24 hours to OSHA.

Those extreme situations are the only reporting requirements if you employ 10 or fewer people because you don’t have to worry about keeping injury logs for OSHA. Even if you have more than 10 employees, you do not have to keep the OSHA logs if you are in a “low-hazard industry.” But the definitions of “low-hazard industries” have changed, and that’s why you may have new reporting OSHA recordkeeping requirements.

Because OSHA has revised the regulation and is now using the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) instead of the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) to determine which industries fall into the low-hazard category, hundreds of thousands of employers will now be required to keep records that never had to before. It is important that you determine what the NAICS code is for your type of business so that you can tell how you will be affected by this revised rule, if at all.

Some of the business industries that will now have to keep OSHA 300 logs and post their injury records for employees to view include bakeries; automobile dealers; automotive parts, accessories, and tire stores; building material and supplies dealers; specialty food stores; beer, wine, and liquor stores; commercial and industrial machinery and equipment rental and leasing; performing arts companies; museums, historical sites and similar institutions; amusement and recreation industries; and some other personal services industries.

Some businesses that will still be defined as “low hazard” and will not have to keep OSHA records are law offices, insurance brokers, accounting firms, architectural and engineering firms, advertising agencies, schools, doctor and dentist offices, day care facilities, electronic and computer servicing companies, and religious organizations.

For more information and to discover if your industry now has to keep the OSHA records, go to https://www.osha.gov/recordkeeping. Here you can find links to a complete list of all of the business industries that are required to keep injury records, as well as a list of the exempt business industries.

You should also remain careful about terminating any employee who has reported an injury or workplace illness. OSHA prohibits employers from retaliating or discriminating against any employee who has suffered an on-the-job injury.