Construction contractors are waiting for important details about President Joe Biden's newly announced plan mandating that all U.S. companies with more than 100 workers require employees to be vaccinated or test weekly for the COVID virus.
在宣布中国人民解放军n on Sept. 9, Biden said he has asked the US Dept. of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration to create a new, emergency temporary standard (ETS) to carry out that mandate.
Most construction contractors have more than 100 employees and those workers would be among the estimated 80 million Americans affected. In a Sept. 9 statement, OSHA said it is working on the temporary standard.
OSHA发言人金伯利·达比（Kimberly Darby）在声明中说：“ OSHA将发布紧急临时标准以实施这一要求。”“该机构正在制定一项规则，该规则将要求拥有100多名员工的雇主在疫苗接种后的天气下为工人提供疫苗接种或恢复的时间提供带薪休假。该要求将通过ET。”
While no action is required by employers until the new standard is released, construction organizations have been recommending that their member contractors encourage employee vaccination since vaccines became available.
AGC评论
"We are taking every possible step to encourage workers to get the vaccine, including working with the Centers for Disease Control to craft construction-specific PSAs, hosting webinars on the topic and ensuring that our members have the resources they need to educate the construction workforce about the safety and effectiveness of the vaccines," said Brian Turmail, Associated General Contractors of America vice president of public affairs and strategic initiatives. "We will review the new OSHA Emergency Temporary Standard when it is released to ensure that it will be effective in improving the health and safety of the construction workforce and that it does not impose unreasonable new burdens on employers."
AGC首席经济学家肯·西蒙森（Ken Simonson）在9月1日在线新闻发布会上说，该行业的共同疫苗接种率约为50％。
A concern for many contractors is that enforcement of existing vaccination mandates by private owners for subcontractors and others who enter a jobsite, but do not work directly for a contractor, has already fallen on their shoulders.
AGC首席执行官斯蒂芬·桑德尔（Stephen Sandherr）在新闻发布会上说：“在您是医院的总承包商的情况下，您雇用或与一系列专业贸易分包商（与）一起在该项目上进行工作，您已经有了进入该项目的供应商。您有建筑物检查员即将进入该项目。”
Sandherr added, "And with these vaccination mandates that come from public and private project owners, it basically sets the general contractor up to be the policeman ... to make sure everybody who steps on that site has had, or has been vaccinated."
他说：“您不能强迫分包商提供有关该分包商或您的供应商的信息，也无法控制城市建筑检查员是否想进入该网站。”
How OSHA will define a workplace and specify who enforces workplace compliance with the new emergency temporary standard is still unknown.
ABC评论
相关的建筑商和承包商也表达了类似的观点，并强调它需要更多地了解预期的ETS。
ABC监管和国家事务监管副总裁本·布鲁贝克（Ben Brubeck）在一份声明中说：“美国广播公司（ABC）鼓励建筑行业利益相关者接种疫苗，因为确保健康安全的工作环境是美国广播公司（ABC）及其成员的重中之重。”“美国广播公司（ABC）担心与拜登政府为100名或更多雇员和联邦承包商的私人雇主提供的几个未解决的问题。”
He said, "ABC will share our concerns with the Biden administration. As ABC learns more about the new policy changes, we will continue to help our members comply with all regulations and guidance from local, state and federal authorities on how to protect workers—our industry’s most valuable asset—from COVID-19 and any of its variants.”
