November 12, 2021
This week, the National Federation of Federal Employees (NFFE) sent a letter to leadership at the White House and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to request that the recently announced COVID-19 vaccination standards for private-sector employees be applied equally to federal employees.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) rules state that private-sector employees in organizations with 100 or more employees must be vaccinated by January 4, 2022. Unvaccinated employees also have the option to produce a negative COVID-19 test on a weekly basis in lieu of receiving the vaccine, provided the employee covers the cost of testing. NFFE believes that federal and private-sector employees should have the same set of requirements.
To ensure that employees and federal workspaces remain as safe as possible, NFFE recommends that employees receive the COVID-19 vaccine if they have not yet done so. If you have any questions regarding the vaccine mandate, please contact your National Business Representative, Jeff Friday at jfriday@nffe.org, or Yvette Piacsek at ypiacsek@nffe.org.