Posted on September 23rd, 2021
FULL TRANSCRIPTION
What’s up fellow entrepreneurs, in his most recent speech president Biden announced sweeping vaccination mandates applying to an estimated 80 million American workers.
Today I want to discuss how this affects California businesses, but first I’m an attorney, but I’m not your attorney. So please seek out competent legal representation for your specific needs or question.
The specifics are yet to be released. But what we currently know about the mandates are;
1) Large employers with employees of a hundred or more will have to require their workers to be fully vaccinated or require unvaccinated workers to receive weekly COVID testing.
Covered employers will be required to provide pay time off to employees, for the time spent receiving a vaccine and recovering from any side effects.
So OSHA will have the ability to find non-compliant employers up to $14,000 per violation.
2) All federal executive branch workers and employees of federal contractors will be required to receive fax nations.
3) Healthcare workers in most healthcare settings that receive Medicare or Medicaid reimbursement, including, but not limited to hospitals, dialysis facilities, ambulatory surgical settings and home health agencies will be required to have fully vaccinated employees, including those that are not directly involved in patient care.
Finally, president Biden, encouraged entertainment venues, such as sports, arenas, and concert halls to require either proof of vaccination or a negative test.
So how does this affect California employers? Well, let’s see, last month following in the footsteps of New York City’s recent vaccination mandate for certain indoor activities, both the County and the City of Los Angeles put their own vaccination mandates into action.
The proposed vaccination mandates have considerable support and the county and city legislative bodies, and we’re expected to be approved in the near future.
Los Angeles city council, president Nury Martinez introduced a motion that would require at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine to enter public indoor spaces, including, but not limited to restaurants, bars, retail, establishments, fitness centers, spas, and entertainment centers, such as stadiums, concert venues, and movie theaters.
To the approach, the proposal advanced to the next step on August 11th, when the city council unanimously voted to direct city attorneys to draft the max vaccination mandate law. Once the proposed law is drafted, it will go back to the city council for final approval approval.
At the same time, the County of Los Angeles also took a step towards a vaccination mandate when the board of supervisors instructed its staff to report back on the feasibility of requiring proof of vaccination to enter indoor spaces within the county as California, specifically, Los Angeles have been among the most aggressive in seeking mandates.
I think the difference between the federal mandates and the California mandates is that the federal mandates are specific to employers and employees, California was most certainly intending on mandates for employers and employees also, but currently the California mandates were intended for the general public and public spaces.
Whether these laws will hold up or not will at some point be determined by the Supreme Court. Right now, 26 of the 50 states already have opposed the federal mandates. And it may just be a matter of time before either the mandates are held unconstitutional by the Supreme court or states refuse to enforce the vaccine mandates requirements.
Obviously I don’t believe that’ll happen in Los Angeles, but after the Los Angeles mandates both Los Angeles firefighters and police officers began protesting city halls about the new requirements. So there are two groups, a group called Firefighters for Freedom and a group called Roll Call for Freedom.
They both outwardly vocalize and held protests against vaccine mandates. And even recently, the Los Angeles school board, pulled back on some of their requirements for vaccines for students.
So, however, even if the federal government or California pulls back as efforts as of today, business owners still have the right to require vaccinations except in certain circumstances, such as religious or health objections.
I have no idea how this is going to play out, but at some point it looks like there’s going to be a, a fairly significant battle about mandates, between the states and the federal government, and then between the Supreme court and the federal government.
So let’s see what happens. Until next time. Be productive.
