Trucking news and briefs for Thursday, Jan. 13, 2022:
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration updated its FAQ with new information about truck drivers related to the Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS) that could require workers at companies with 100 or more employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19.
A lawsuit challenging the ETS was decided in favor of staying the OSHA's rule by the Supreme Court on Thursday, January 13, just days after OSHA began enforcing the ETS on Jan. 10. The agency had said in a statement that it would not issue citations for noncompliance with its vaccination or testing requirements before Feb. 9, as long as employers exercised “good faith efforts” to come into compliance with the ETS -- efforts which are moot given the court's ruling.
In the new section posted in the FAQ, nonetheless, OSHA clarified that while there was no specific exemption for truck drivers, the ETS did “not apply to employees ’who do not report to a workplace where other individuals such as coworkers or customers are present’ or employees ‘who work exclusively outdoors.’”
The FAQ went on to say that truck drivers who do not work in a team operation with another driver in the cab and who only encounter other individuals in outdoor environments would not have been included in the ETS, either.
Additionally, OSHA noted that minimal use of indoor facilities where other people may be present, such as using a multi-stall bathroom or entering an administrative office to drop off paperwork “does not preclude an employee from being covered by these exemptions, as long as time spent indoors is brief.”
