ARLINGTON, VA – Though it appears truckers will be exempt from the government’s new vaccine mandate, the American Truckers Association (ATA) isn’t taking any chances.
On Tuesday, ATA – the nation’s largest trade association for the trucking industry – joined associations from Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas in filing a challenge against the Biden Administration in the Fifth Circuit Appeals Court asking for a stay in the implementation for the mandate due to the failure of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration no satisfying requirements in issuing the Emergency Temporary Standard for the COVID-19 vaccine mandate.
“As we made clear in our comments to the Administration prior to the rule’s publication, drivers spend the vast majority of their workday alone in the cab and outside” explained ATA President and CEO Chris Spear. “The rule published yesterday exempts employees who exclusively work outdoors or remotely and have minimal contact with others indoors, and all indications thus far from the Department of Labor suggest this exemption does apply to the commercial truck driver population.”
Given the nationwide shortage of truck drivers, of which some put in excess of 80,000 drivers, ATA says it is vital that the industry has the relief it needs to keep critical goods moving, including food, fuel, medicine, and the vaccine itself.
Under the Administration’s mandate, employers with 100 or more employees are required to ensure each of their workers is fully vaccinated or tests negative for COVID at least once a week. The deadline for workers to be fully vaccinated is January 4, 2022, and employers must start requiring unvaccinated workers to be masked and start offering benefits like paid time off to get vaccinated by December 4, 2021.
(SOURCE: All Ag News)