Louisiana business groups are pushing back on the Biden administration’s plan to mandate COVID-19 vaccinations for employees of businesses that have 100 or more workers on their payrolls.
The Biden plan calls on the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to issue a rule that those employees, who make up about 50% of the nation’s private-sector workforce, either get vaccinated or endure a COVID-19 test weekly to ensure they don’t have the virus.
In addition, employers would have to pay workers for time off when the employees get their shots.
The National Federation of Independent Business’ leadership in Louisiana called the proposed mandate costly and burdensome for the businesses affected. The Louisiana NFIB also indicated that it would continue to review the federal plan.
“Small businesses face daily challenges from pandemic requirements, locating qualified workers, rampant inflation and supply-chain disruptions,” Kevin Kuhlman, the NFIB vice president of federal government relations, told the Louisiana Record in an email. “Small business owners and their employees want to operate in a safe and healthy manner that allows them to stay open. Additional mandates, enforcement and penalties will further threaten the fragile small business recovery.”
Stephen Waguespack, the president and CEO of the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry (LABI), expressed similar concerns in a prepared statement. He said the federal mandate would affect a quarter of LABI members.
Although Waguespack has been vaccinated and sees the vaccines as essential to the state’s public health and economic health, he views the mandates on private companies as exceeding the authority of the federal government.
“OSHA has no constitutional authority, capacity or standing to enforce such an action,” he said. “In fact, this federal overreach will do more harm to encouraging vaccination literacy than any other step taken to date.”
The Biden administration plan also could encourage U.S. firms to relocate their operations to other countries, according to Waguespack.
“This policy has the potential to offshore American companies who fear losing their employees, subjecting themselves to predatory litigation and are at risk of paying exorbitant OSHA fines enforced from unnamed federal agencies in a challenging, pandemic-influenced economy,” he said.
President Biden is advancing the wrong prescription during a time of record high job openings and a national labor shortage, according to Waguespack.
“Instead of taking targeted actions to jump-start our stagnant economy, the administration and congressional leadership continue to propose new taxes, unprecedented spending and mandates that will drive up costs and stifle economic growth,” he said.