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The Return of the OSHA ETS: What Now and What’s Next?

Blank Rome Workplace

On December 17, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit revived the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s much-litigated “vaccinate or test” Emergency Temporary Standard (“ETS”). The Sixth Circuit’s divided decision lifted the nationwide stay on enforcement of the ETS that had previously been ordered by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. The litigation will now move to the U.S. Supreme Court, which has already received eight separate petitions seeking to stay the Sixth Circuit’s decision. The Supreme Court has ordered the federal government to respond to the petitions by December 30.

OSHA has moved quickly to reinstate the ETS. On December 18, OSHA released new guidance on the timing for compliance with, and enforcement of, the ETS’s requirements. Broadly speaking, the guidance states that: (1) OSHA will not issue citations for noncompliance with the ETS prior to January 10, 2022; and (2) OSHA also will not issue citations for noncompliance with the ETS’s testing requirements prior to February 9, 2022provided that an employer is “exercising reasonable, good faith efforts to come into compliance.”

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