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EEOC Clarifies Guidance on Religious Accommodations to Vaccine Mandates

On Oct. 25, 2021 the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) issued new guidance for resolving religious objections to COVID-19 workplace vaccination mandates. This guidance comes at a time when many employees are submitting requests for religious accommodations to workplace vaccine mandates.

The EEOC issued the new guidance (at Section L) while employers await an Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS) from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration that will direct large employers to require their employees to be vaccinated or regularly tested. When the ETS takes effect, employers will likely face a significant increase in religious accommodation requests.

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Mandatory Vaccination Coverage Expanded in Practice for All Federal Contractors and Subcontractors

As McGuireWoods noted in a Sept. 10 alertSept. 20 FAQs and Sept. 27, 2021 update, part of the Biden administration’s COVID-19 vaccination mandates applies only to federal contractors and subcontractors. And, even then, the Sept. 9, 2021 Executive Order 14042 (EO) and Sept. 24, 2021 Safer Federal Workforce Task Force Guidance appear to limit coverage to only a subset of such employers.

However, after publication of the Task Force Guidance, the Federal Acquisition Regulatory (FAR) Council and federal agencies have taken an aggressive position in rolling out the vaccination mandate — “encouraging” contracting officers to include the EO clause in all federal contracts beginning Oct. 15, 2021. This includes contracts for goods and contracts below the FAR simplified acquisition threshold.

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Biden Administration Announces COVID-19 Vaccine and Testing Mandates for Most Employers

Update (Oct. 18, 2021): The Federal Acquisition Regulatory (FAR) Council and federal agencies have taken an aggressive position in rolling out the federal contractor and subcontractor vaccination mandate — “encouraging” contracting officers to include the Executive Order clause in all federal contracts beginning Oct. 15, 2021 – including contracts for goods and other exceptions otherwise excluded by the executive order. For more details, please see our alert.

Update (Sept. 27, 2021): On Sept. 24, the Safer Federal Workforce Task Force released new guidance on how that EO will operationally work and the locations and employees covered by it. See our Sept. 27 alert for more information.

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