On Thursday, January 13, 2022, in a 6-3 split, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) halted enforcement of the Federal OSHA’s controversial Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS) which would have required private-sector employers with 100 or more employees to develop a policy to ensure their workforce was fully vaccinated or require any workers who remain unvaccinated to wear face coverings and produce a negative test result on at least a weekly basis before coming to work. The Court said a separate mandate requiring vaccinations for healthcare workers can be enforced.
While the Federal OSHA ETS does not apply to public sector, Nevada has an OSHA State Plan which requires Nevada to adopt standards at least as stringent as Federal OSHA’s ETS and apply them to local government employers as well as State and private employers. As such, SCOTUS’s finding indirectly impacts POOL/PACT members.
What does this mean?
It’s not over yet.
The Federal OSHA ETS is once again stayed “pending disposition of the applicants’ petitions for review in the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit and disposition of the applicants’ petitions for writs of certiorari, if such writs are timely sought.” This means SCOTUS punted the issue back to the Sixth Circuit.
On the other hand, when asked about the issue during his press conference, Governor Sisolak emphasized he is not intending on implementing any vaccine mandates, rather he strongly encourages vaccination.
At this time, Nevada OSHA has not released any additional guidance.
We will continue to monitor and update our members as guidance becomes available. As always, please contact your HR Business Partner with any questions you may have.
