SCOTUS rulings have mixed impact on NY employers

In one of two rulings on January 13, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS) stayed enforcement of an Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS) promulgated by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) that would have required around 84 million workers to be either vaccinated or tested on a weekly basis. In the second ruling, the Court upheld President Joe Biden’s mandate that most healthcare employees—around 10 million workers—be vaccinated as a condition of receiving federal reimbursement.

Read on to see how these rulings affect New York employers, which are subject to a patchwork of Executive Orders pertaining to vaccination.

OSHA vaccine-or-test mandate postponed

In a 6-3 decision, SCOTUS stayed enforcement of the OSHA ETS by finding the coalition of business interests and states challenging the standard were likely to succeed on the merits of their challenge. Reasoning COVID-19 isn’t an “occupational hazard,” the conservative majority agreed the ETS went beyond OSHA’s statutory authority based on the effects employees would experience outside of work.