mhogan@imfpubs.com

Attorneys with clients in the mortgage finance industry are urging lenders with large employee headcounts to draft comprehensive policies outlining how they and their workers will comply with federal mandates surrounding COVID-19 vaccinations and testing.

Earlier this month, the Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration released an interim final rule on its emergency temporary standard requiring employers with 100 or more workers to “develop, implement and enforce a mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policy, with an exception for employers that instead adopt a policy requiring employees to either get vaccinated or elect to undergo regular COVID-19 testing and wear a face covering at work in lieu of vaccination.”

The ETS was quickly challenged in federal circuit court, and an appeals court issued a stay.

However, if the stay is lifted, initial employer compliance steps are required by Dec. 5, and workers covered under the rule would need to be vaccinated or tested weekly starting Jan. 4, 2022. 

For more on the story, see the new edition of Inside Mortgage Finance, available online Thursday afternoon.