Houston area lawyer says he believes Texas is going to fight back against the big business vaccine mandate

HOUSTON – For companies with 100 or more employees, the time is running out to have their employees fully vaccinated or tested weekly as part of a new federal contract.

The Occupational Safety and Health Agency (OSHA) published its vaccination recommendations for about two-thirds of the country’s private workforce on Thursday.

The agency that monitors workplace safety uses a Temporary Emergency Standard (ETS) to oblige companies with at least 100 employees to provide evidence of vaccination status or to have unvaccinated employees tested weekly for Covid-19 from January 4, 2022.

The new federal regulations, which affect around 84 million people, come after an executive order issued by President Biden in September. If an employer fails to meet the requirements, they face fines of nearly $ 14,000 for any worker who does not comply.

Unvaccinated employees have to pay for their weekly tests themselves.

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Houston Labor Attorney Ronald Dupree said the federal mandate would override Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s October order prohibiting any company from prescribing vaccines.

“Companies with fewer than 100 employees are not subject to this rule, but companies with fewer than 100 employees would still need to follow the guidelines provided by the governor’s ordinance, and some of these require objections to vaccinations to be considered,” said Dupree.

While many employers have embraced the rules, they have met with criticism in Texas and other Republican-run states.

“You have no real rights under Biden’s mandate,” said attorney Jared Woodfill of the Woodfill law firm. “Either you make the test shot or you get fired.”

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Woodfill represents 200 Houston Methodist Hospital health care workers who were laid off last June for refusing to take a COVID-19 vaccine that was not fully FDA cleared at the time. The case is now in the United States 5th District Court of Appeals, Woodfill said.

Now Woodfill expects a new lawsuit between the state of Texas and the federal government over the OSHA vaccine mandate.

“Employers shouldn’t be able to tell you the federal government shouldn’t be able to tell you that if you don’t make this admission, you will be fired,” he said.

In a statement to KPRC 2, Governor Abbott said in part: “The Biden government has placed Texans in the impossible position of choosing between caring for their families or firing for not receiving the COVID-19 vaccine.

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Both Dupree and Woodfill said they are awaiting lawsuits.

“I think it comes down to when the governor, and frankly, other governors and others who resist this process, question this process,” Dupree said.

“I think Attorney General Ken Paxton will be filing a lawsuit very soon, if he hasn’t already, and will question the federal government’s ability to tell Texans what they can or can’t do,” added Woodfill. “Here, too, the big government comes in and says to the states, ‘We want you to do it our way or onto the freeway.'”

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https://www.click2houston.com/news/local/2021/11/05/houston-area-lawyer-says-he-believes-texas-is-going-to-fight-back-against-the-big-business-vaccine-mandate/