Biden’s New Coronavirus Workplace Rules Are Set To Collide With Reopenings
The Biden administration is expected to issue new temporary rules next week to curb Covid-19 spread in the workplace, setting a collision course with the growing number of states loosening restrictions on businesses to aid their reopening.
The mandates — which would add enforcement powers to guidelines that are now just optional — threaten to further roil the politics around President Joe Biden’s cautious reopening strategy and ramp up tensions between the administration and the business community, particularly with industries hard-hit by closures like restaurants and entertainment and hospitality venues.
Businesses warn the policy could create confusion and bring hefty new costs for employers, while worker advocates say the rules are needed to protect the largely unvaccinated labor force.
“Retailers are concerned about the [possibility] of … a rigid, one-size-fits-all emergency regulation, particularly during a global pandemic that has already imposed substantial economic hardship,” the National Retail Federation said in a letter to House labor committee leaders Thursday.
