On July 29, President Biden announced during a press conference that every federal government employee and on-site contractor will be asked to attest to their vaccination status. According to a White House fact sheet, anyone who does not attest to being fully vaccinated will be required to wear a mask on the job no matter their geographic location, physically distance from all other employees and visitors, comply with a weekly or twice weekly screening testing requirement and be subject to restrictions on official travel.

The fact sheet further states that President Biden is directing his team to take steps to apply similar standards to all federal contractors. In addition, the administration will encourage employers across the private sector to follow this model.

ABC National’s general counsel, Littler Mendelson, wrote that “It is not yet clear what the scope of an executive order will entail for federal contractors. While it is clear that on-site contractors will be required to either be fully vaccinated for COVID-19 or continue to wear masks and engage in social distancing, it is not yet clear whether the order will attempt to require employers with federal contracts to engage in these protocols in their own workspaces, for example, at the headquarters of a company that has federal contractors in place on other federal worksites.” Read Littler’s analysis.

ABC staff is closely monitoring this new development and will provide future updates on this important issue in Newsline.