At the time of this posting, the Biden administration has rescinded the OSHA ETS on vaccines for employers of 100 plus employees. The federal contractor rules remain stayed as litigation continues to work its way through various courts and depending on those outcomes, the federal contractor mandate may also be rescinded. A federal vaccine mandate is in place through CMS for healthcare workers.

Exemption Process

Iowa does allow private employers to mandate vaccines but provides a relatively open-ended exemption process for both medical and religious reasons. If you do not have a federal mandate for the vaccine, then you likely need to use the Iowa process and statute to assess any exemption request. Employees who are terminated or voluntarily quit due to vaccine requirements are eligible for job service benefits.

Many employers have employees who will not be vaccinated but also refuse to apply for an exemption to the company rules. Currently, this is treated as an internal disciplinary matter. Employees who do not apply for exemption and then are terminated will likely still qualify for unemployment benefits.

CDC Guidance

The CDC continues to update its guidance on issues of exposure and quarantine. For members of the general public and those not working in high-risk industries who are exposed to COVID and are not “up to date” on vaccines, the CDC recommends a quarantine for at least 5 full days, if the person has no symptoms but to take precautions such as masking until day 10.

If you are “up to date” on vaccines, quarantine is not required, if there are no symptoms, but testing 5 days after the last exposure is required. You should mask for the entire 10-day period. The full updated guidance dated January 20, 2022, is available on CDC.gov. Note that “up to date” means that you have also received a booster(s). Certain industries, such as healthcare, have different requirements.

Iowa Liability Safe Harbor

Of concern to many companies is the use of the liability “safe harbor” Iowa enacted two years ago for issues such as a person claiming they caught COVID in your lobby or at a business-sponsored event. Those liability protections can generally only be used if the business is meeting the then-current OSHA and CDC guidance on issues, such as personal protective equipment and social distancing. As these recommendations have changed frequently, you need to change internal PPE policies as well as update your mitigation plans as the rules change.

OSHA has been very clear that it intends to continue to enforce many of its requirements for PPE and other COVID safety measures under the General Duty clause (you have a general duty to keep your employees safe) while it works on new permanent rules relating to COVID in the workplace. We anticipate seeing those rules in the next few months. Unlike the recent ETS, permanent rules go through the standard rulemaking process and are open to comment and revision prior to being issued or enforced.