Small agency, big job: Biden tasks OSHA with vaccine mandate

https://abcnews.go.com/ ^ | September 16, 2021 | By PAUL WISEMAN AP Economics Writer

[Red Badger]

WASHINGTON -- The Occupational Safety and Health Administration doesn’t make many headlines. Charged with keeping America’s workplaces safe, it usually busies itself with tasks such as setting and enforcing standards for goggles, hardhats and ladders.

But President Joe Biden this month threw the tiny Labor Department agency into the raging national debate over federal COVID-19 vaccine mandates. The president directed OSHA to write a rule requiring employers with at least 100 workers to force employees to get vaccinated or produce weekly test results showing they are virus free.

The assignment is sure to test an understaffed agency that has struggled to defend its authority in court. And the legal challenges to Biden’s vaccine mandate will be unrelenting: Republican governors and others call it an egregious example of government overreach. South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster vowed to fight the mandate “to the gates of hell.’’

“There are going to be some long days and nights for the folks who are drafting this rule,” says labor lawyer Aaron Gelb, a partner in the Chicago office of Conn Maciel Carey. “It’s an interesting time to be an OSHA lawyer for sure."

When Congress created OSHA 50 years ago to police workplace safety, 38 workers were dying on the job every day. Now that figure is closer to 15 — even though the American workforce is has more than doubled in the interim. OSHA writes rules designed to protect workers from dangers such as toxic chemicals, rickety scaffolding and cave-ins at construction sites.

“The hazard in this case is the infectious worker," says epidemiologist David Michaels, OSHA director in the Obama administration. “This rule will tell employers: You have to take steps to make sure potentially infectious workers don’t come into the workplace."

[frank ballenger]

OSHA will merely use a cell phone to punch the number of the United States Marine Corps and wait for the Marines to arrive.

Sept.10, 2021 ———— “We’re playing for real here,” Biden said. “This isn’t a game.”

[Veggie Todd]

Oh goodie. Another huge government hiring spree.

[grey_whiskers]

“The hazard in this case is the infectious worker," says epidemiologist David Michaels, OSHA director in the Obama administration. “This rule will tell employers: You have to take steps to make sure potentially infectious workers don’t come into the workplace."

All IT people can work from home except those needed to install cable and such. Which won't be as big a priority with the large offices closed down because people are workig from home.

[BipolarBob]

“The hazard in this case is the infectious worker,"

Which could be the vaccinated or unvaccinated. Either is just as likely. The best rule of thumb is tell the workers don't come in if they are showing symptoms of Covid.

[BipolarBob]

And his patience is wearing out.

[DEPcom]

I have to wonder if they are going to require yearly flu shots now.

[T.B. Yoits]

From the article: “The hazard in this case is the infectious worker," says epidemiologist David Michaels, OSHA director in the Obama administration. “This rule will tell employers: You have to take steps to make sure potentially infectious workers don’t come into the workplace."

The infectious worker, actively spreading virus mutations, is the one who got the Jim Jones Jab.

Let OSHA apply this to workers with HIV and see how fast they get pimp-smacked.

This also means that OSHA is now tasked with keeping un-vetted illegal aliens out of the workplace. Can't wait to see that hotline bombarded with complaints.

[PMAS]

Wonder what companies will do when they lose 10-20% of their employees

[BenLurkin]

Another Federal bureaucracy that shouldn’t even exist in the first place.

[sanjuanbob]

I wonder what the penalty be if a healthy unvaccinated person contracts the virus from a vaccinated coworker? Who’s responsible for being the spreader when 10 other coworkers subsequently become infected?

[Pollard]

OSHA is a small agency, given the size of its mission: with its state partners, OSHA has approximately 2,400 inspectors covering more than 8 million workplaces where 130 million workers are employed — just a fraction of the nation’s worksites.

According to a report by AFL–CIO, it would take OSHA 129 years to inspect all workplaces under its jurisdiction.[28]

They don't normally cover a lot of types of businesses. Only the ones where there are potentially hazardous conditions.

[1Old Pro]

the tiny Labor Department agency

Yep, time to double its size, hire another 2500 voters, er government check recipients.

[MNJohnnie]

The obvious lie here is clear

IF the “infected worker” is a “hazard” you cannot exempt companies under 100 employees. The rule would have to apply to all

The lie indicates this has noting to do with “safety” and everything to do with politics. Biden needs to manufacture a PR image he is a tough guy taking on Corvid to try and save his failed Presidency

[The Fop]

They will need 3 other unvaccinated witnesses to back their testimony, which will be weighed equally against one opposing vaccinated witness. Just like in the Koran.

[LittleBillyInfidel]

Pretty sure the Mop Cone Police will find this new task to be a wee bit over their heads.

[shanover]

Sure,open that Pandora’s box.

[Magnum44]

[lodi90]

They don’t normally cover a lot of types of businesses. Only the ones where there are potentially hazardous conditions.

---

Seems that is about to change. This is a camel’s nose in the tent moment, IMO. Who knows what else OSHA will end up enforcing.

[Leaning Right]

> The president directed OSHA to write a rule requiring employers with at least 100 workers to force employees to get vaccinated or produce weekly test results showing they are virus free. <

Oh, so now OSHA bureaucrats are making laws. I thought only Congress could do that.

Oh, wait. I guess if you call a law a “rule” instead, you can bypass the Constitution entirely.