Many See OSHA Vaccination Rule Not Having Big Impact on Communications Sphere
Many employers in the communications universe don't see the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's COVID-19 vaccination emergency temporary standard (ETS) released earlier this month having a big impact on their workplace policies, as vaccination requirements are already the norm. The ETS would require workplaces of more than 100 people to mandate either vaccinations for their workers or weekly COVID-19 testing. Some companies pointed to September's executive order (EO) requiring federal contractors mandate vaccinations for their workforces and said they would comply.
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DOJ and the Labor Department in an emergency motion Tuesday (in Pacer, docket 21-4027) asked the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to lift a stay of the ETS ordered by the 5th Circuit before the consolidated ETS challenges were assigned the 6th. It said while the 5th Circuit reasoned that the COVID-19 pandemic exists also outside the workplace, and thus outside OSHA authority, "Congress charged OSHA with addressing grave dangers in the workplace, without any carve-out for viruses or dangers that also happen to exist outside the workplace."
While there's sizable uncertainty among larger companies, most were already leaning toward mandating vaccinations for employees who do in-person meetings, work in the office or interact with customers regardless of the ETS, Institute for Corporate Productivity Senior Vice President-Research Jay Jamrog said in an interview. He said among smaller companies, there is some vaccine requirement hesitancy out of fear of losing employees who themselves are vaccine hesitant, "or creating an us-and-them workforce."
The guidelines Hogan Lovells had in place when its Washington office, with nearly 1,000 people, transitioned to hybrid working Nov. 1, "nearly mirror those implemented by OSHA," D.C. office managing partner Michele Farquhar said in a statement. "More than 98% of our people in DC have confirmed their full vaccination, and the remaining few who’ve met the threshold for an exception will socially distance and wear masks at all times when in the office, and undergo regular testing. Our in-house counsel continues to monitor the developments at OSHA.” Hogan Lovells said more than 95% of its people at its New York office have confirmed they are fully vaccinated, as are more than 94% of its people in the U.S. overall.
Steptoe & Johnson emailed us that its policy is everyone coming into the office needs to be vaccinated and, depending on local regulations, masked. "Like any other business, we would follow as a matter of course any requirements made by OSHA in the area of workplace safety," a spokesman said.
"When it comes to the vaccine, we know that’s a highly emotional subject, with strong feelings on both sides," emailed Lumen Director-Global Issues Mark Molzen. "For that reason, we have resisted mandating vaccines." But pointing to the federal contractor obligations under the EO and other customer requirements, he said Lumen now requires its U.S. employees get the vaccine unless they have been granted a religious or medical accommodation. "We believe our processes appropriately balance individual rights against our contractual requirements and safety of the overall workforce," Molzen said. "We have informed our employees and they have the details they need to make their decisions."
Frontier is in discussions with its unions about how the vaccination mandate required by the EO will be rolled out to represented employees, a spokesperson said. Windstream emailed that it is "working towards compliance with the Executive Order." It said it's reviewing the OSHA requirements, as did Comcast.
Scripps said it notified employees in September that everyone had to be fully vaccinated by Dec. 1, though there is an appeals process based on medical, religious beliefs or other criteria. “From the start of the pandemic, our senior leadership team has focused on protecting the health and well-being of our employees, serving our audiences and communities and maintaining business continuity. That’s what [drove] our decisions," a spokesperson emailed us. An Audacy spokesperson emailed that the company is "encouraging all of our employees to get vaccinated." Sinclair emailed it's "planning on complying with the OSHA rules."
Fox Corp. in September told employees that based on full-time employee self-reporting, more than 90% were fully vaccinated. "This is important information for our company to know as we continue to implement our phased return to office timing and procedures," it said. Fox said it would start implementing daily COVID-19 testing for those who aren't vaccinated or didn't provide their vaccination status. The company told us it's providing the testing.