As workers in industries from healthcare to law enforcement face potential termination ahead of deadlines for individual organizations’ vaccine mandates, questions have arisen about how the Biden administration will enforce its nationwide vaccine mandate on workplaces across the country.
The Occupational Health and Safety Administration is still working on a draft rule requiring all companies with more than 100 employees to mandate vaccines or weekly COVID-19 tests as conditions of employment — more than a month after President Joe Biden announced the rule was coming.
But recent struggles at companies and in cities that have already pursued their own vaccine mandates have highlighted some of the challenges that lie ahead for businesses that will soon confront the nationwide mandate.
VACCINE MANDATES THREATEN TO WORSEN POLICE SHORTAGES NATIONWIDE
An airline industry already hamstrung for months by pandemic-related staffing shortages is bracing for the potential of even more delays and canceled flights driven by departures related to vaccine mandates, which several major airlines have imposed.
A union representing Southwest Airlines pilots denied on Monday that a massive slate of delayed and canceled flights over the weekend was due to pilots protesting a looming mandate at the company by calling out sick — but speculation swirled that a so-called “sickout” had caused the meltdown.
United Airlines began the process of firing nearly 600 employees in early October as its vaccination mandate arrived.
The healthcare industry in some places has also scrambled to accommodate firings and potential firings of staff who refuse to take their shots under mandates.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul prepared an emergency plan for dealing with healthcare worker shortages as the deadline for the state’s vaccine mandate for the industry approached.
As many as roughly 50,000 hospital workers in New York remained unvaccinated as of Oct. 6, according to state data, and their fate was still unclear heading into the Friday deadline for healthcare workers across most types of healthcare facilities getting vaccinated.
In Erie County, New York, which encompasses Buffalo and is close to Niagara Falls, one hospital system suspended inpatient elective surgeries and almost all ICU transfers as it prepared for likely staff shortages ahead of the deadline.
A national vaccine mandate may be far more difficult to implement than the corporate, city, and state mandates that have emerged so far.
OSHA, the agency responsible for drafting and enforcing the rule, had just 862 inspectors on staff as of last year, according to data obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request by NBC News.
Companies that run afoul of the vaccine requirements could face fines of nearly $14,000 per violation, according to administration officials.
But it’s unclear how OSHA will catch violations across the hundreds of thousands of companies to which the rule will apply.
Some experts have pointed to research that shows publicly naming businesses that break the rules can serve as a deterrent to other would-be offenders. According to one analysis, a press release from OSHA about a company facing fines can have the same effect on compliance as more than 200 inspections.
Another question that has plagued small business owners: who will foot the bill for weekly testing in the event some employees opt out for that option instead of getting vaccinated.
The Biden administration has not indicated whether it will pick up the tab for the testing its new rule requires of companies with unvaccinated employees.
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Businesses could choose to pass the cost on to employees or pay for the tests themselves.
Delta Airlines used the threat of charging employees to remain unvaccinated to encourage more of its workers to take the jab and threatened to impose a $200 surcharge on workers who were still unvaccinated by November.
Critics have warned that current labor shortages could be made worse by the coming Labor Department rule, as existing mandates have suggested some workers will choose to leave their jobs rather than submit to the vaccine requirement.
