Federal Vaccine Mandates

This is a semi-long post; however, I'm hoping some of you might find this useful. I'm in charge of managing my division's response to COVID, so I'm fairly knowledgeable on what's happening. Maybe this will clarify some things. So while the CEO of SW Air doesn't agree with mandates, SW Airlines' hands are tied by the government in how they have to approach.

There are two different Federal Vaccine Mandates.

1) The 100+ employer mandate that Brandon announced but OSHA hasn't released to the world yet and doesn't currently matter from a legal standpoint. If and when that changes we'll see.

2) The Federal Contractor Mandate was put in place by Brandon's Executive Order.

The Federal Contractor Mandate is extremely vague and broad and appears to sweep up a lot of people who don't directly deal with Federal contracts. For instance, if one person in a corporate office supports employees on a Federal contract (processes payroll, reconciliation of accounting, etc.), everyone who works out of the corporate offices or works remotely but is based out of the corporate offices (onsite FT, PT or FT remote) must be fully vaccinated with proof of vaccination by 12/8/2021 as a condition of employment.

Companies right now are still trying to digest what this Federal Contractor mandate imposes. Currently, it looks to be very broad.

The actual Executive Order: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/09/09/executive-order-on-ensuring-adequate-covid-safety-protocols-for-federal-contractors/

This paragraph is of importance:

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(b) By September 24, 2021, the Safer Federal Workforce Task Force (Task Force) shall, as part of its issuance of Task Force Guidance, provide definitions of relevant terms for contractors and subcontractors, explanations of protocols required of contractors and subcontractors to comply with workplace safety guidance, and any exceptions to Task Force Guidance that apply to contractor and subcontractor workplace locations and individuals in those locations working on or in connection with a Federal Government contract or contract-like instrument (as described in section 5(a) of this order).

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The Offical Guidelines from the Government: https://www.saferfederalworkforce.gov/downloads/Draft%20contractor%20guidance%20doc_20210922.pdf

From the definitions page:

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Covered contractor – means a prime contractor or subcontractor at any tier who is a party to a covered contract.

Covered contractor employee – means any full-time or part-time employee of a covered contractor working on or in connection with a covered contract or working at a covered 3 contractor workplace. This includes employees of covered contractors who are not themselves working on or in connection with a covered contract.

Covered contractor workplace – means a location controlled by a covered contractor at which any employee of a covered contractor working on or in connection with a covered contract is likely to be present during the period of performance for a covered contract. A covered contractor workplace does not include a covered contractor employee’s residence

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The underlined part above is the gotcha...This means anyone working in an office providing support for a federal contract (HR, Legal, Payroll, Accounting, AP, AR, etc...) falls under this mandate. So if a company does any Federal work (SW Airlines for example) then the mandate is far-reaching inside that company.

This is from the FAQ Section, Question 8:

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Q8: If a covered contractor employee is likely to be present during the period of performance for a covered contract on only one floor or a separate area of a building, site, or facility controlled by a covered contractor, do other areas of the building, site, or facility controlled by a covered contractor constitute a covered contractor workplace?

A: Yes, unless a covered contractor can affirmatively determine that none of its employees on another floor or in separate areas of the building will come into contact with a covered contractor employee during the period of performance of a covered contract. This would include affirmatively determining that there will be no interactions between covered contractor employees and non-covered contractor employees in those locations during the period of performance on a covered contract, including interactions through use of common areas such as lobbies, security clearance areas, elevators, stairwells, meeting rooms, kitchens, dining areas, and parking garages.

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