Coronavirus Update 9-28-21: White House issues Covid vaccine mandate guidance for federal contractors and subcontractors

If your business is a federal contractor or subcontractor, you have until December 8 to ensure that your employees are fully vaccinated against Covid-19, according to guidance published late Friday by the White House's Safer Federal Workforce Task Force. There is no testing-in-lieu option available for these employees.

What exactly does this guidance mandate?

• The mandate applies to all full-time and part-time employees of a covered contractor or subcontractor, subject to only a few exceptions.

• Exception 1: Employees who need a reasonable accommodation for a disability or a sincerely held religious belief, practice, or observance.

• Exception 2: Employees who work for a covered federal contractor or subcontractor, but work at a location that has no nexus to the federal contract or subcontract. For example, consider a construction company that holds some federal contracts. The job sites under those contracts are covered by the mandate. Also covered is the back office that provides administrative support (HR, IT, finance, etc.). Not covered, though, would be a job site not under a federal contract.

• Exception 3: Employees who both work 100 percent from home and are not performing any work related to a federal contract or subcontract.

• The mandate also imposes immediate masking and physical distancing obligations for covered contractors and subcontractors, both for employees and non-employee visitors.

• In areas of high or substantial community COVID-19 transmission (which currently includes all of Ohio), all people – employees and non-employees – must wear a mask when working indoors.

• In areas of low or moderate community COVID-19 transmission, only those who are not fully vaccinated must mask up indoors.

• Individuals who are not fully vaccinated must also wear a mask in crowded outdoor settings or during outdoor activities that involve sustained close contact with other people who are not fully vaccinated.

• Mask rules are subject to exceptions for employees working alone in a closed office; when eating or drinking; when engaging in activities in which a mask may get wet; when engaging in high-intensity activities that could make breathing difficult; and when engaging in activities for which wearing a mask could create a risk to workplace health or safety.

• Fully vaccinated individuals do not need to physically distance, while unvaccinated individuals should maintain six feet of physical distance from others at all times.

• Covered contractors and subcontractors must designate one or more person(s) to coordinate COVID-19 workplace safety efforts related to this mandate.

Given that it takes as much as six weeks for an employee to be considered fully vaccinated (e.g., four weeks between Moderna vaccine doses plus an additional two weeks after the second dose to reach full immunity), an impacted business only has a few weeks to implement a vaccine mandate policy and program to ensure compliance by the December 8 deadline.

If you need assistance getting your vaccine-mandate house in order, I happen to know a great employment lawyer who is ready to jump in and assist.

* Photo by René DeAnda on Unsplash