President Biden signed an Executive Order on September 9, 2021, that outlines the coronavirus vaccine mandate for Federal Contractors. This order instructed the Safer Federal Workforce Task Force (“Task Force”) to issue guidance by September 24, 2021, explaining requirements and exceptions to the mandate.

The Executive Order only applies to any new contracts or new contract-like instruments as well as for new solicitations, extensions, renewals and/or exercises of an option for an existing agreement. The Executive Order does not cover: grants; contracts or contact-like instruments or agreements with Indian Tribes (as outlined in the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act); contracts or contract-like instruments with values equal to or less than the simplified acquisition threshold; employees who work outside of the United States; and “subcontracts solely for the provision of products.”

Effective dates, processes, record keeping requirements, and other such information is not yet known, but is expected to be addressed by the Task Force.  Based on the press conferences held yesterday at the White House, we know that the mandate will remove the current testing option for Federal Contractors and require vaccinations within seventy-five (75) days of the promulgated rule. Employees who refuse to get vaccinated may face standard disciplinary processes for federal workers up to and including termination.

In addition to the Executive Order, the White House also stated that OSHA is developing an Emergency Temporary Standard (“ETS”) which will require all employers with one hundred (100) or more employees to ensure their workforce is fully vaccinated or require any workers who remain unvaccinated to produce a negative test result on at least a weekly basis before coming to work. This ETS is still in development and not currently in effect.

HR Partners will continue to keep clients updated on new developments and updated guidance, as they are released.

The HR Partners Holiday Video - 2024

We appreciate your business, and we wish you nothing but the best for Christmas and the New Year holidays.

2025 will be an epic year and we can’t wait to work with you to continue the magic.

To view the video, click the image below or click here, and once you see the video on Vimeo, please click the play button. Enjoy!

 2024HRPVideo

 

HR Advisor Newsletter

What our clients say...

East Texas Electric Cooperative

Tambra Offield
Officer Manager
East Texas Electric Cooperative

“I first met Kristina Dietrick and learned of HR Partners at last year’s NRECA Interact conference.  Her presentation on developing an employee handbook was very informative.  Kristina sent me all the materials and introduced me to the staff who worked closely with myself and our General Manager to develop our new employee handbook specifically to fit our needs. 

We were so impressed that when our Board President asked about doing an evaluation of our General Manager’s performance, that we immediately thought of HR Partners.”

We can’t thank HR Partners enough for all their help with our GM’s review process.  Their knowledge and experience made the process so easy. 

I have recommended CBS to all 10 of our distribution cooperative members for all their human resources needs.