Federal government contractors and subcontractors have been dealing with a steady stream of new FAQs and details regarding the COVID-19 safety requirements for federal contractors and subcontractors first announced by President Biden’s Executive Order 14042, Ensuring Adequate COVID Safety Protocols for Federal Contractors, and then issued by the Safer Federal Workforce Task Force (the “Task Force”). Our prior postings on all of those developments can be found here, here, here, here, and here.
On November 10, 2021, the Task Force issued updated Guidance and new FAQs regarding the COVID-19 requirements. As previously reported, a White House Fact Sheet issued on November 4, 2021 indicated that the December 8, 2021 deadline for covered contractor and subcontractor employees to be fully vaccinated would be extended. The updated Guidance issued on November 10, 2021 formally extends that deadline providing: “Covered contractor employees must be fully vaccinated no later than January 18, 2022.” This means covered contractor and subcontractor employees must receive their second dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine, or single dose of Johnson & Johnson vaccine by January 4, 2022.
The Task Force also issued new and updated FAQs regarding the requirements. These include:
- Announcing the availability of sample signage that contractors and subcontractors can post at entrances to announce safety requirements at their worksites.
- Clarifying that when a covered contractor or subcontractor employee works at a federal government worksite (as opposed to working at home or at the contractor/subcontractor’s facility), the employee must still abide by the Guidance’s requirements.
We will continue to monitor and update our readers on new developments regarding the Task Force’s Guidance.
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