This week: Biden’s vaccine mandate, news on the spending bill in Congress and workers on a form of strike in New York City.
Biden vaccine mandate for businesses to take effect
The Biden Administration has ordered all businesses with over 100 employees to make sure those employees are vaccinated by Jan. 4, 2022.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration under the Labor Department recently released rules for the vaccine mandate, requiring all employees to have their second vaccination by that date, or begin taking weekly COVID-19 tests. Indoor mask mandates for those businesses will also go into effect by Dec. 5.
OSHA will conduct inspections to ensure compliance with the rules and companies could face thousands of dollars in fines for any violations.
Legal resistance to the controversial mandate is expected with nearly every Republican state attorney general already contesting the mandate.
For more details, see below:
Businesses have until after the holidays to implement Biden COVID vaccine mandate
New York employees on leave after state vaccine mandate deadline passes
In New York City, around 9,000 government employees are on unpaid leave after the deadline for a state COVID vaccine mandate passed on Nov. 1.
Those employees count for around 6% of the workforce in the city. Thousands of firefighters have also called in sick to protest the mandate.
However, despite the many on leave, Fox 13 reported Mayor Bill de Blasio said around 90% of the city’s employees have been vaccinated and there has been no disruption of services.
For more details, see below:
NYC employees on unpaid leave after COVID-19 vaccine deadline passes
Biden administration plans to settle with families separated under Trump administration
The Justice Department under the Biden Administration is working on a plan to compensate immigrant families who were separated from their children at the border.
More than 3,000 children were separated from their families under the Trump Administration and many of these families are suing the U.S. government. So far it is not clear how many would be eligible for compensation, which was initially reported to be around $450,000 per family.
This plan is an effort to the families to settle out-of-court, possibly preventing them being awarded millions of dollars in damages.
Earlier this week, Biden denied the plan when questioned about it. However, the White House Principle Duty Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre retracted those statements on Thursday, saying Biden was reacting to the $450,000 figure when he called the reports “garbage,” and that his administration is comfortable settling with the families if it will “put the disastrous history of the previous president’s use of zero tolerance and family separation behind them,” as reported by CNN.
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Paid family leave added back to spending bill
A four-week paid family leave initiative has been added back to the Build Back Better Act, a spending bill originally proposed by President Biden. The original bill proposed 12-week paid family leave, but was rejected from the $1.75 trillion proposal.
The cut led to protests from family leave advocates who pointed out that the U.S. is one of very few countries without paid family leave. The problems this creates for Americans trying to balance working and caring for their families has only become more obvious with the COVID-19 pandemic.
Advocates celebrated its return to the bill proposal on Nov. 3. However, the bill still has a long way to go before it becomes law and there is worry that some lawmakers will object to the plan with the reattachment of paid leave.
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Article by Mckayla Olsen
mckayla.olsen@gmail.com
Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash
