Overstretched OSHA Will Rely on American Workers to Rat on Their Bosses if They Flout Biden's Vax Mandate
In order to enforce the new federal vaccine mandate, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration is apparently counting on workers to police their employers and co-workers.
As OSHA only has 1,850 inspectors to oversee 130 million workers at 8 million job sites, the agency is relying on “a corps of informers to identify violations of the order: Employees who will presumably be concerned enough to turn in their own employers if their co-workers go unvaccinated or fail to undergo weekly tests to show they’re virus-free.”
Debbie Berkowitz, a former OSHA chief of staff, told the Associated Press as much in a report released on Tuesday.
“There is no army of OSHA inspectors that is going to be knocking on employers door or even calling them,” Berkowitz said.
“They’re going to rely on workers and their union representatives to file complaints where the company is totally flouting the law.”
The acting chief of OSHA, Jim Frederick, seemed to confirm that was in fact the case.
According to Frederick, the agency would focus on job sites “where workers need assistance to have a safe and healthy workplace,” which “typically comes through in the form of a complaint.”
That seems to be in line with how OSHA operates in general.
According to the AP, roughly 20 to 25 percent of OSHA inspections all begin with some sort of complaint.
It has been less than two weeks since OSHA announced the new vaccination rule would be taking effect.
The agency announced the vaccine mandate originally proposed by President Joe Biden — requiring businesses with 100 or more employees to either ensure their workers are all vaccinated or take weekly COVID-19 tests — would take the form of an emergency temporary standard.
As an emergency temporary standard, the rule went into effect immediately.
Businesses that fail to ensure their employees’ vaccination could be hit with fines of $14,000 per violation.
However, two days after the announcement, a federal court temporarily blocked the rule.
According to Reuters, the nationwide stay was handed down by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
The court found “grave statutory and constitutional” issues with the vaccine mandate.
BREAKING: The Federal Court of Appeals just issued a temporary halt to Biden’s vaccine mandate.
Emergency hearings will take place soon.
We will have our day in court to strike down Biden’s unconstitutional abuse of authority. pic.twitter.com/8utmU05vw3
— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) November 6, 2021
According to Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, emergency hearings regarding the mandate “will take place soon.”
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