OSHA Vaccine Rule Applies to Postal Service Employees

More information is to come from USPS and its unions.

The vaccine rule the Biden administration unveiled on Thursday applies to the U.S. Postal Service, but the agency has not yet commented publicly on how this will play out.

On Thursday morning, the administration released details on its new vaccine rules. One is from the Labor Department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration that applies to private businesses with 100 or more employees, and there is a testing option if employees decline to get vaccinated. The other, from the Health and Human Services Department’s Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, is a vaccine mandate that applies to healthcare workers at facilities participating in Medicare or Medicaid programs.

“Under the [Occupational Safety and Health Act], the U.S. Postal Service is treated as a private employer,” said OSHA’s emergency temporary standard, set to officially publish in the Federal Register on Friday. “It is therefore required to comply with this [emergency temporary standard] in the same manner as any other employer covered by the act.”