Well I am enjoying the rational intelligent discussion so I dont care if we go all day.
A testing mandate is not what this is being pushed as....a vaccine madate or test weekly at your own cost.
But again Walmart or UNited making the decision is within their power. The federal government is asking them to do something they never agreed to do. Walmart for example does not require 100% employees get vaccinated and neither does CVS. They may punt and say big brother said so... sorry.
if Walmart was fine with 15% of their employees not getting vaccinated and they put in rules in place for all employees they may suddenly be quite upset that now they are being fined millions of dollars on something they had already taken care of themselves. So the lawsuits might be from large companies because THEY are having to pay the fines. If Walmart, United, Google and Apple join together.... this Emergency Order will have to be changed, improved or scrapped.
I totally understand what the messaging is but the legal argument they make in court may be something totally different. Who knows though, the Biden administration may argue OSHA has the brute force to impose a vaccine mandate but to me that does not explain the testing component. If they could just mandate a vaccine requirement, why putz around with the testing alternative.
Legally, the testing is a slam dunk but without a law passed by Congress I don’t know how much an actual vaccine mandate will hold up in court. The key here is vaccination being an alternative to the testing. At least in my mind. If the Biden team pushes the brute force approach through a federal rule, they very well could lose.
Ok, the government doesn’t need agreement to impose a rule. However, I am not familiar with federal rule making procedures and what can be suspended etc. Yes, I too would be be pissed if I faced fines for unvaccinated employees. What I will say is that the Biden team is not the Trump team. They are going to be ready for all of this and I expect they worked out these legal kinks.
Also, it’s the unsaid thing that most and I do mean most employers are secretly glad for this. They don’t want Covid in their businesses, they work their too. If make over $100k you’re vaccination rate is the highest in America. Plus it brings stability to your business.
Private businesses being able to remove unvaccinated employees is not the federal government’s doing. The feds are saying tests but will accept vaccination in lieu, or pay a fine. How you handle unvaccinated employees is your business. Courts have already told unvaccinated workers they can go kick rocks if they get fired. That’s all.
