New vaccine rule requires mandatory COVID-19 vaccination, weekly testing for workers of large companies

November 5th, 2021

Today the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issued a rule enforcing a vaccine mandate for all employers with 100 or more employees.

What you need to know:

• Employers must ensure that their workers are either fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by Jan. 4, 2022, or submit to weekly coronavirus testing.
• Employers must pay workers for the time it takes to get vaccinated and provide sick leave for workers to recover from any side effects.
• Although employers don’t need to pay for testing, ROC calls on all employers that do not provide healthcare coverage to cover the cost.
• Unvaccinated people must wear face masks while on the job.

How will restaurant workers benefit:

• It will help ensure the health and safety of restaurant workers. The vaccine mandate will reduce the likelihood that patrons will enter restaurant establishments infected with COVID-19, and will also dramatically reduce the likelihood that restaurant workers and patrons will die or suffer severe illness if they are exposed to and contract COVID-19.
• Restaurant workers have been tasked with ensuring customers wear masks when they are not eating, and are now being asked to verify vaccination status in major cities around the country. Restaurant workers have been forced onto the frontlines of America’s culture wars against their will. This vaccine mandate will ensure that a greater percentage of all customers entering restaurant establishments are vaccinated, eliminating or reducing the vitriol and threats of physical assault that restaurant workers are facing on a daily basis.

Employers that have adopted vaccine mandates have seen vaccination rates as high as 99 percent. ROC United has voluntarily adopted this same mandate, and we also encourage all smaller restaurant proprietors to immediately adopt the mandate for the safety and health of restaurant workers.