The Biden administration has made a push in federal appeals court to reinstate its national mandate for companies to verify that employees are vaccinated against the coronavirus or are tested weekly.
Under the Biden directive, companies that have 100 employees or more must mandate vaccination or regular testing with fines violating the measure starting at an estimated $13,653 per violation, Axios reported.
Last week, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit issued a stay on Biden’s employee vaccine directive, saying that it “grossly exceeds the [Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s] statutory authority” to regulate hazards within the workplace.
The administration refuted that claim Tuesday in a 52-page motion in the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals.
“The court’s principal rationale was that OSHA allegedly lacked statutory authority to address the grave danger of COVID-19 in the workplace. … That rationale has no basis in the statutory text Congress charged OSHA with addressing grave dangers in the workplace, without any carve-out for viruses or dangers that also happen to exit outside the workplace,” the motion stated.
The New York Times reported at least 34 lawsuits, brought by workers and Republican-controlled states, have been moved to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals for consolidation.