Update Applicable to:
All employers with 100 or more employees in the state of Minnesota
What happened?
On January 3, 2022, Minnesota’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (MNOSHA) adopted the federal OSHA’s COVID-19 Vaccination and Testing Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS) published on November 5, 2021.
What are the details?
Effective immediately, employers with 100 or more employees are required to develop, implement, and enforce mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policies, with an exception for employers that adopt policies requiring employees to be vaccinated or undergo regular COVID-19 testing and wear face coverings at work in lieu of vaccination.
MNOSHA also adopted federal OSHA’s ETS enforcement guidance. Following federal OSHA’s timeline, MNOSHA will exercise enforcement discretion and not issue citations for noncompliance with any ETS requirements until January 10, 2022, and “it will not issue citations for the testing requirements until February 9, 2022, so long as businesses are making ‘good faith’ efforts to implement the rules.”
For more information, please see the links below:
What do employers need to do?
Employers should review the links provided above and take steps to comply with the ETS and, at minimum, be able to show “‘good faith’ efforts” to implement the rules to avoid potential citations.
