Dear Tribal Leaders,

On November 4, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration announced a new emergency temporary standard to protect more than 84 million workers from the spread of the coronavirus on the job. The nation’s unvaccinated workers face grave danger from workplace exposure to coronavirus, and immediate action is necessary to protect them. Under this standard, covered employers must develop, implement and enforce a mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policy, unless they adopt a policy requiring employees to choose to either be vaccinated or undergo regular COVID-19 testing and wear a face covering at work.

OSHA is offering robust compliance assistance to help businesses implement the standard, which can be found at this landing page.

Department officials will hold a briefing with Tribal leaders via Zoom

Date:  November 5, 2021
Time: 3:00 PM – 3:45 PM ET (US and Canada)
Call-in number: +1 669 254 5252
Meeting ID: 161 045 0061

Here is a link to the White House fact sheet on these two vaccination policies: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/11/04/fact-sheet-biden-administration-announces-details-of-two-major-vaccination-policies/ [whitehouse.gov]

Please RSVP to Lujan.Theresa@dol.gov if you plan to attend at 3pm ET. This briefing is intended for tribal leaders and staff.  You will have the opportunity to ask policy questions by stating in the zoom chat function that you would like to ask a question, but please do not raise casework or specific business or individual questions in the briefing, in the interest of time. Attendees are encouraged to review the guidance found in links ahead of the briefing.