After a recent United States Supreme Court decision prohibited it, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) officially announced the withdrawal of its COVID-19 vaccination and testing Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS), effective Jan. 26, 2022.
According to The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), “OSHA’s withdrawal of its COVID-19 vaccination and testing ETS, which required employers with 100 or more employees to ensure their workers were vaccinated against COVID-19 or underwent weekly testing, nullifies employers’ obligations under the standard. The withdrawal would also discontinue the OSHA ETS case before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit because OSHA is unlikely to pursue merit finding for a withdrawn regulation.
However, employers must continue to comply with state or local government vaccination and/or testing requirements, which are not affected by the ETS’s withdrawal. While no longer defending against legal challenges to the temporary standard, OSHA is continuing rulemaking efforts for a proposed permanent COVID-19 standard.” Stay tuned.
Congress poised to preclude arbitration for harassment claims
In what news reports are calling “a rare collaboration between conservatives and liberals,” Congress seems poised to pass legislation that would end the forced use of arbitration for on-the-job sexual harassment. The bill would allow victims to decide whether they want to take their sexual harassment or assault claims to court instead. See S.2342 – Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act of 2021, found at: https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/senate-bill/2342?s=1&r=87.
