How WI Employers Are Affected By New Federal Vaccine Requirements

MILWAUKEE, WI — New federal guidelines issued Thursday require Wisconsin employers with 100 or more employees to develop a mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policy or give employees a choice between getting vaccinated or getting tested regularly and wearing a face mask.

The emergency temporary standard from OSHA affects 84 million private sector employees but the agency estimates that over 26 million workers who are affected are unvaccinated and the standard will lead to about 72 percent of those workers getting the shot.

In some states, the standard also affects state and local government workers, including teachers and school staff.

Here’s what the standard means for Wisconsin employers with 100 or more employees:

Employers are required to provide paid time off for employees to get vaccinated as well as paid time off to recover from any side effects.

Employers aren’t required to pay for coronavirus testing or face masks under the standard.

The standard is effective as soon as it’s published in the Federal Register on Nov. 5. Employers have 30 days to comply with most of the requirements and 60 days to comply with the testing requirements.

There are other provisions in the standards like employees — whether they are vaccinated or not — would have to provide let employers know if they test positive for COVID-19. The employee would not be able to return to work until they are cleared.

Employees who work from home, work outdoors, or go to a workplace where there are no other employees are not covered by the rules. Workers will be able to ask for exemptions on medical or religious grounds.

The Department of Labor says unvaccinated workers face grave danger from being exposed to the coronavirus at work and this action is necessary to protect them.

Several businesses, health care organizations and governments have already moved to implement COVID-19 vaccination policies.

"We have already done a great job at getting most of our employees vaccinated," Aspirus hospital systems president Matthew Heywood hold WAOW. He said the system was preparing for the mandate for months, and wants to complete its vaccination process.

The City of Milwaukee adopted a vaccine mandate for general city employees in August. More than 95 percent of city workers complied with the mandate, the city told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on Monday.

President Biden framed the issue as a simple choice between getting more people vaccinated or prolonging the pandemic.

“While I would have much preferred that requirements not become necessary, too many people remain unvaccinated for us to get out of this pandemic for good,” he said Thursday in a statement.

Biden said his encouragement for businesses to impose mandates and his own previous requirements for the military and federal contractors have helped reduce the number of unvaccinated Americans over 12 from 100 million in late July to about 60 million now.

Reporting and writing from The Associated Press was used in this story.