Utah Businesses Shouldn’t Comply with Biden’s OSHA Vaccine Mandate

Businesses are ramping up for the busiest Black Friday shopping season ever, but they face two significant challenges: rising costs due to inflation — caused by the federal government’s addiction to creating money out of thin air — and a supply chain crisis that doesn’t appear to be improving anytime soon.

Now comes a third burden from Biden’s administration: a date decreed after which businesses with 100 or more employees will be deputized to become vaccine enforcers. Failure to comply after January 4 will lead to $13,653 fines (who comes up with these numbers, anyway?) for single violations, with repeat offenders facing fines ten times that amount.

The 490-page mandate from OSHA — the federal agency issuing this mandate without Congressional review — has no end date, and also requires business owners to ensure that “each employee who is not fully vaccinated wears a face covering.” It also solicits input during the comment period on the idea of extending the mandate to businesses with fewer than 100 employees.

OSHA’s rule is an “emergency” one, yet doesn’t take effect for another two months — making weaker the already-shaky legal ground for this mandate to pass muster. And many states, including Utah, are itching to challenge the rule in the courts. It’s likely that this will head to the US Supreme Court.

Consequently, business owners should strengthen the case against this mandate by refusing to comply. Any enforcement of this rule — for example, if OSHA were to start levying widespread fines, which Pelosi and her cohorts are trying to substantially increase — would provoke significant backlash, increase political pressure to revoke the rule, and heighten the scrutiny for related court cases proceeding through the system.

Libertas Institute, for its part, does not have more than 100 employees. If OSHA were to amend their mandate to require a group of our size (46 employees and growing!) to comply, we would not. There is a proper role of government, and this definitely isn’t it. We should act accordingly, and we invite you to do the same.