COVID-19 VACCINE MANDATE

BUSINESS MATTERS

COVID-19 vaccine mandate could affect local employers

STORY BY SIRI HEDREEN

Employees of Russell Lands, Russell Medical and most of the local automotive plants will have to get vaccinated by Jan. 4 or pay for weekly COVID-19 testing under a directive from the Occupational Health and Safety Administration, though a bill passed by the Alabama Legislature may create a back door.

The regulation puts to action an executive order issued by President Joe Biden in September, directing OSHA to require employers of 100-plus workers to ensure their employees are vaccinated for COVID-19. Employees who refuse must present a weekly negative test at their own expense.

The regulation has faced resistance from Republicans. Rep. Mike Rogers (R-AL) called the mandate “an unprecedented display of socialist government overreach.”

The news also saw immediate resistance in the statehouse, with a vaccine exemption bill passed by the Alabama Legislature that afternoon on the final day of a special session originally intended for redistricting. The federal stopgap, quickly constructed and passed after hours of debate, allows workers to claim exempt status on religious or medical grounds and was signed by Gov. Kay Ivey.

“This legislature felt like it needed to stand in the gap and provide some protection for employees, while the courts take their time to look at this mandate and hopefully make the determination this is not something the federal government can do,” bill sponsor Sen. Chris Elliot (R-Fairhope) said following its passage.

House minority leader Anthony Daniels (D-Huntsville) criticized it as “the most anti-business piece of legislation I’ve encountered in my time in office.”

More than 80 million workers are employed by private-sector companies covered by the Biden administration’s vaccine mandate.

About a dozen local private-sector employers fall into that category, according to data from the Lake Martin Area Economic Development Alliance, including SL Alabama, Sejin America, Madix, Kwangsung and C&J Tech, as well as the hospital and Lake Martin developer Russell Lands, employing a total of more than 3,300 workers. The number of Tallapoosa and Coosa county workers affected may be higher; however, as the mandate affects employees of chain retailers like Walmart or remote employees of large companies.

Several local employers told The Outlook they had yet to issue any directives as they were still digesting the seemingly conflicting state and federal regulations.

“We have to deal with the OSHA regulations. Unfortunately, they only came out yesterday and it’ s 150 pages of technical details,” Russell Lands vice president and general counsel Steve Forehand said.

“No state law is completely going to overrule a federal law,” he said “I wouldn’t be surprised to see every circuit court of appeals have lawsuits filed challenging this.”

To date, 45 percent of Alabamians have been fully vaccinated, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The state is among the least-vaccinated in the nation, ahead of only Idaho, West Virginia and Wyoming.