The U.S. Postal Service is requesting that the Biden administration’s COVID-19 vaccine requirements for federal workers be temporarily waived for its 650,000 employees, saying enforcing the rules could jeopardize its ability to deliver the mail.
The warning from Deputy Postmaster General Douglas Tulino came in a letter on Tuesday to the Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration, or OSHA.
The emergency temporary standard requiring that workers be vaccinated against COVID-19 or show a negative test weekly would “likely to result in the loss of many employees — either by employees leaving or being disciplined,” Tulino stated in the written request.
The USPS — a government institution that operates independently — is asking that OSHA extend by 120 days the compliance deadline for the worker vaccine rules until courts have rendered a final decision.