The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) last week issued an emergency temporary standard (ETS) that called for “[c]overed employers [to] develop, implement, and enforce a mandatory Covid-19 vaccination policy, with an exception for employers that instead adopt a policy requiring employees to either get vaccinated or elect to undergo regular Covid-19 testing and wear a face covering at work in lieu of vaccination.”
Both the Associated General Contractors of America (AGC) and the Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) responded to the ETS.
AGC CEO Stephen E. Sandherr issued the following statement:
“This association has been an ardent advocate for the coronavirus vaccine. We were among the first to organize a nationwide coronavirus vaccine awareness week, have worked with the CDC to provide resources and public service ads specific to the construction industry, and continue to take every possible step to urge construction professionals at all levels to get vaccinated.
“Instead of providing additional resources and support to encourage workers to do the right thing, the Biden administration’s new vaccine mandates will make the challenge of vaccinating more construction professionals harder, based on our initial analysis of the measure.
“The rule creates more confusion than clarity. For example, the measure claims to require workers to incur the costs of testing, yet it also says many employers will likely be required to pay those workers for the time spent getting tested. The rule also claims to exempt people who work outside – something many in construction do – but then defines outside in a way that excludes just about every occupation traditionally performed outdoors.
“By opting to have one standard apply to federal contractors, a different standard apply to firms that employ 100 or more people, and no standard for firms with 99 or fewer workers, the administration is doing more to encourage vaccine-reluctant workers to relocate to smaller firms than to get vaccinated. This is something many workers will easily be able to do in a labor market where nearly 90 percent of construction firms are having a hard time finding workers to hire.
“The Biden administration isn’t even clear on whether there is an emergency to justify this rule’s rapid drafting and implementation. On one hand, the narrative refers to the rule as an Emergency Temporary Standard while also labeling it an Interim Final Rule. And while declaring an immediate emergency, the measure also finds the time to ask for comments over the next 30 days.
“We all want to see more people vaccinated and we are all doing our part to make that happen. But this rule will lead many workers to shift jobs to smaller firms while leaving larger contractors with the burden of having to comply with a complex new rule while they struggle to find workers that don’t exist to meet client demands that do.
“The path to ending the pandemic does not lie through confusion, coercion or conflicting mandates. That is why this association will provide comments to this measure designed to fix its many flaws and continue to explore all other possible options to protect the construction industry and the economy from the many risks created by this measure.”
ABC’s statement came from Ben Brubeck, VP of regulatory, labor and state affairs.
“The OSHA ETS is likely to increase compliance costs and cause regulatory burdens that will exacerbate several headwinds facing the construction industry—which is currently facing a workforce shortage of 430,000, escalating materials prices and supply chain bottlenecks—and the American economy. We are currently reviewing the 490-page rule and related documents from the Biden administration in order to thoroughly evaluate its impact on our membership and the construction industry.”
“ABC will be participating in the rulemaking process and plans to assess additional actions, which may include facilitating industry compliance and/or filing a legal challenge,” said Brubeck. “In the interim, ABC continues to encourage industry stakeholders to get the COVID-19 vaccine and use all available tools to ensure healthy and safe work environments.”
