At least four large business groups are asking President Joe Biden to delay implementing his vaccine mandate until after the holidays due to fears that unvaccinated workers will quit rather than comply with the mandate.
The National Retail Federation, the American Trucking Associations and the Retail Industry Leaders Association are asking for 90 days to comply with the mandate, which would delay implementation until January.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce also wants to delay the rule change until after the holidays, they said.
Retail Industry Leaders Assoc. President Evan Armstrong said after meeting with Biden on Monday that the mandate could be a trigger for people to resign when there are already severe staffing issues across the industry.
“Difficult policy”
“It has been a hectic holiday season already, as you know, with supply chain struggles,” Armstrong said. “This is a difficult policy to implement. It would be even more difficult during the holiday season.”
Biden announced a mandate for companies with 100 or more employees in September, but OSHA has not yet approved the actual rule or presented it to the president or the American people. I
Employees who did not get vaccinated could be tested weekly, and violations could lead to fines of up to $14,000 per offense.
An October survey from the Society for Human Resource Management found that almost 9 in 10 large employers expect unvaccinated workers to quit over the vaccine mandate. Losing workers could exacerbate supply chain issues that are already causing huge problems around the country and that are expected to continue into 2022.
May have some time
Deputy assistant secretary of OSHA during the Obama administration Jordan Barab said the agency will probably give businesses about 10 weeks, the same as they did for federal contractors, until employees have to be fully vaccinated.
Federal employees and contractors need to be vaccinated by December 8, and National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors (NAW) has said that distribution companies, many of which are federal contractors, will not be able to meet that deadline.
But the administration said that companies would not necessarily need to fire workers, at least not right away. “As we work to implement these federal employee requirements, the first step is not firings; it’s actually education and counseling. We don’t actually anticipate these disruptions,” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said.
At the heart of the issue, however, is the fact that if it is enforced to its fullest, some workers are going to be displaced by Biden’s mandate eventually. A delay until after the holidays will help employers in the short term, but a long term fix is not in the works at this point.
The post Large business groups ask Biden to delay COVID mandate until after the holidays first appeared on Conservative Institute.
No comments: