January 25, 2022, 03:57pm.
The emergency rule that required large private employers to have Covid-19 vaccines or regular tests is being dropped after the Supreme Court blocked the policy.
President Joe Biden spoke at the White House on January 24.
The vaccine-or-test rule will be withdrawn on Wednesday when it is published in the Federal Register.
The Labor Department said that the OSHA dropped the policy after evaluating the Supreme Court decision.
The Supreme Court upheld the vaccine mandate for healthcare workers earlier this month, and OSHA prioritized its resources on the matter.
The administration wants the case to be thrown out because the policy is being dropped anyway.
OSHA is still considering moving forward with imposing a vaccine policy through the agency's normal rulemaking process, rather than an emergency one that is subject to less scrutiny.
The Department of Labor said in its document withdrawing the rule that OSHA continues to strongly encourage the vaccination of workers against the continuing dangers posed by COVID-19 in the workplace.
If the Biden Administration tries to revive the vaccine-or-test policy through the normal rulemaking process, it will hold up in the court system. A Labor Department spokesman told USA Today that the department has not made a decision about when or if it will come out with a new rule, which could be more targeted toward certain industries. Rules imposed through the normal process are subject to a higher level of scrutiny than emergency orders because of steps like gathering research, accepting public comments and performing a risk assessment. David Michaels told the New York Times that the permanent rule could be struck down in court.
Private employers are no longer subject to the OSHA rule. Starbucks dropped their vaccine policies as a result of the Supreme Court ruling, while Carhartt has doubled down on keeping their mandates in place. According to a survey conducted last week, 34% of employers plan to keep their vaccine policies in place, 29% will wait and see, and 14% will keep Covid-19 testing requirements. Only 4% had already decided to drop their policies completely, but 12% said they were less likely to have a vaccine mandate in place.
The Biden Administration's vaccine-or-test rule applied to all private employers with 100 or more employees, and it took effect in early January before the Supreme Court ruled against it. The court said that the mandate should have been left to Congress. The government overstepped its authority by requiring vaccinations, and the rule was a significant encroachment into employees, the justices said. If the Biden Administration had not withdrawn the policy, an appeals court would have still considered it.
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