OSHA’s COVID-19 ETS Mandate & What It Means For Your Business
WHAT HAPPENED?
As we all know at this point, we’ve been living in a pandemic that has upended everyone’s lives. COVID-19 won’t seem to go away, but we need to keep the economy going and keep businesses open. Because of this, the Federal government has introduced a strict set of policies and procedures that are meant to:
1) Ensure businesses can stay open by maintaining strict safety protocols
2) Keep COVID-19 transmission rates down
3) Protect unvaccinated workers from contracting COVID-19
This new mandate is called the OSHA COVID-19 Emergency Temporary Standard.
WHAT IS THE OSHA COVID-19 ETS MANDATE?
The new OSHA COVID-19 ETS can be summarized as a set of COVID-19 vaccination and testing requirements that cover more than 100 million employees in the United States.
The requirements go into effect January 4th, 2022.
The new rules require companies with 100 or more employees to ensure that either:
1) All workers become fully vaccinated against COVID-19 OR
2) Workers can prove negative COVID-19 tests at least once a week
With the new set of rules, employers must give employees at least 4 hours of paid time off to get vaccinated, and employers do not have to pay for COVID-19 PCR testing (in the case of unvaccinated workers). Unvaccinated workers also must wear masks while on the job.
WHAT DOES COMPLIANCE MEAN?
Compliance with these rules mean the ability to track and produce vaccination / COVID-19 testing records for all employees. With hundreds of workers, maintaining these records could turn into an absolute nightmare.
This means that HR teams will have to devote extra time and effort to collecting, maintaining, and keeping track of when employees need to get new vaccine booster shots or PCR tests. With economy not fully reopened and lots of normal facilities compromised with supply chain issues or delays, keeping up to date with this information will be extra hard.
Failure to comply with the new COVID-19 mandate can end up being extremely costly, with fines up to $13,653 per violation and 10x that fine for multiple violations.
DIGITAL IDS FOR COVID-19 VACCINATION TRACKING
There are several best practices for tracking vaccination statuses and other COVID-19 related information. Rather than just using pen and paper or keeping track of the information with excel spreadsheets, software with a database should be used.
Using a software specifically designed for tracking attributes helps with:
1) Eliminating manual processes like entering data & making phone calls
2) Providing a HIPAA compliant platform to store sensitive Personal Health Information
3) Making it easier for everyone in the company to upload & store their vaccination records
Digital ID badges are designed specifically to track attributes attached to workers, so managing things like COVID-19 vaccinations or COVID-19 tests can be done much more easily. With digital ID cards, companies can create easy mobile workflows that let workers simply upload a copy of their vaccination record from their smartphone.
Digital ID badging systems also provide a secure login portal for administrators to keep track of everyone’s statuses and create reports that show when workers need to update their records or get another booster.
Thankfully, we built Virtual Badge to handle COVID-19 vaccination tracking to comply with OSHA’s new safety mandates. Click here to schedule a call to learn more about how Virtual Badge might help your organization comply with OSHA’s new COVID-19 rules.
