Guidelines for employees are constantly changing but it’s important that businesses stay on top of mandates and regulations. What risks should organizations be informed about? Is your organization able to have varied insurance premiums for vaccinated vs. non-vaccinated employees? Join Rea & Associates and Huntington Insurance for a deep dive into best practices for exposures, insurance perspectives, and vaccine mandates and regulations.

3. COVID HR Compliance
• Updates – FFCRA Leave
• Voluntary FFCRA leave expired September 30, 2021
• Previously offered employees with qualifying Covid leave criteria
for up to 80 hours leave pay.
• Payroll credit will be received by employers for any wages paid
for leave through the date above.

4. Employee Leave Requests
• What if employee needs to take leave of absence due to Covid?
• Review employer policies in handbook regarding leave of absences
• Family Medical Leave – employers over 50 employees and meeting
criteria noted below.
• https://www.dol.gov/general/topic/benefits-leave/fmla
• Leave of Absence Policies
• How is your organization’s PTO or Vacation Pay policy written
regarding
medical absences – Are employees required to use this time prior
to any unpaid time off?
• CONSISTENCY in policy administration

5. Considerations
• Americans with Disabilities Act
• https://www.ada.gov/
• Religious Accommodations

6. Employer Concerns – Vaccine Policies
• Retention of employees
• Will implementation of mandated vaccine policies or no mandated policies
cause turnover?
• Recruitment
• Organizations need to be aware both mandated and non-mandated vaccine
policies could affect ability to attract new employees.
• Unemployment Claims –
• Employees terminated for violation of employer mandate vaccine are NOT
eligible
for unemployment compensation. However, exceptions can occur if
employee
has reasonable accommodation/religious accommodation requests etc.

8. Cleaning and Inspection
• Company and leadership has the responsibility to provide a clean safe work environment for
employees
• Prior to re-opening and at various intervals – perform deep cleaning of entire operation
• Cleaning plan for post use of equipment (copiers, printers, and other common elements)
• Hard surface cleaning – door handles, switches, tables, etc.
−Frequency will be dependent on usage but no less than daily
• Clean first – vacuum, dust, wipe down
• Disinfect/Sanitize second – use of bleach solution or other pre-mix solution or wipes (PPE MUST be
used)
• Sterilize third – only for certain business
• Single entry into locations with separate exit where possible
• Perform the temperature checks
• Have training for the symptoms and require self-reporting of any sickness – STAY HOME
• Follow the CDC, Health Department, and other agency requirements – BE FLEXIBLE
• Hand wash stations, sanitizing stations, lower touch controls

9. Operations
• Increase air rotation to 6-8 air volumes per hour
• Increase outside air make up to 20% of the rotated volume
• Increase filtration to HEPA with MERV 9-13 ratings
• The consensus guidance now is 15 minutes of exposure within 6 ft. of an
infected person for quarantine and high probability of transmission
• Self-Cleaning of workspaces and items touched
• Everyone has an ownership piece in prevention.
• Prepare for all employees – make reasonable accommodations

11. Disclaimer
• The legal landscape continues to involve quickly and there is a lack of
clear-cut authority or bright line rules on implementation for the
upcoming OSHA ETS (at this time)
• The information contained in this presentation is not intended to be
unequivocal, one-size fits all guidance, but instead represents our
interpretation of where applicable law currently and generally stands
• We anticipate that this guidance will change over time
• Employers should remain flexible and seek up-to-date legal advice
before making workplace decisions related to COVID-19 (and its variants)

12. President Biden’s COVID-19 Action Plan
• On September 9, 2021, the White House released a memorandum detailing
President Biden’s COVID-19 Action Plan
• The memorandum contains six priorities for combatting the COVID-19
pandemic, including a requirement that all employers with 100 or more
employees must implement a vaccine mandate and/or require weekly
testing of unvaccinated workers
• The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) will issue an
Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS) to implement these requirements
• OSHA will also develop a rule requiring these employers to provide paid
time off to employees for the time spent getting vaccinated or recovering
post-vaccination
• Companies that fail to comply may be subject to up to $14,000 in fines per
employee

13. President Biden’s COVID-19 Action Plan
• The memorandum also announces that President Biden has signed
Executive Orders requiring all federal executive branch workers be
vaccinated as well as all employees of federal contractors
• There will be much more discussion and explanation on the details of the
various announcement and requirements – however, for now, we know this
much:
−Healthcare workers must be fully vaccinated
−Executive branch employees must be fully vaccinated
−Federal contractor employees must be fully vaccinated
−OSHA is being tasked with issuing an emergency regulation that will require large employers
– those with at least 100 employees – to require vaccinations or weekly testing for all
employees
−Mandatory mask wearing on public transportation will be enforced thru a doubling of fines
−Over the next 3 months, retailers will sell at-home test kits at cost, and free testing is
happening at pharmacies

14. What Next?
• OSHA will take at least three or four weeks to write the new standard,
partly because it must complete certain time-consuming steps to ensure
that the rule passes legal muster
• OSHA must rigorously demonstrate that workers face a grave danger at
work and that that the rule is necessary to defuse that danger and that it is
feasible for employers to carry out
• OSHA must also sort through a number of practical questions, such as who
pays for the testing and what kinds of tests are acceptable
• Once the rule is published in the Federal Register, employers are likely to
have at least a few weeks to comply before OSHA begins enforcement, but
they may put forth a policy even sooner
• Enforcement can happen in a number of ways:
−The agency can prioritize a single problematic industry or industries and focus inspections
there
−It can also conduct inspections in response to news reports of outbreaks or worker
complaints

15. Employer Vaccination Mandates
• Many employers have already started to implement mandatory vaccination
programs
• This became more likely when the FDA provided full authorization for the
Pfizer vaccine
• With the President’s COVID-19 Action Plan – we should expect a significant
increase in the number of employers implementing such programs
• BUT . . .What will this NOW look like? We don’t know.

16. Employer Vaccination Mandates
• Generally, employers can mandate vaccination as a condition of
employees return to workplace
• However, employers must provide reasonable accommodations to:
• Employees who cannot be vaccinated for disability-related reasons; and
• Employees who refuse the COVID vaccine because of sincerely-held religious beliefs
• Employers must engage in the interactive process with employees to
determine reasonable accommodation
• Think about disparate impact/discriminatory enforcement
• Be aware of state law

18. Delta Airlines
• Imposing a $200 monthly surcharge on health insurance premiums to
employees who are not vaccinated against COVID-19
• COVID-related hospitalizations costing $50k per employee according to
memo written by Delta’s CEO.
• Primarily due to unvaccinated employees
• Issues including time off work and maintaining safe and reliable service
in a pandemic

19. Should I consider this?
• While we cannot advise exactly what to do…the best answer is not yet.
• ACA rules and regulations currently do not allow for a medical premium
surcharge towards non-vaccinated employees.
• We are seeing larger corporations doing this now, but they likely sought
out extensive legal guidance to weigh the benefits and ramifications.
• For employers, it is advised to seek guidance from legal resources, HR,
brokers, benefit consultants, and ACA solution providers before
imposing an unvaccinated penalty or surcharge in medical premiums.

20. What about tobacco surcharges?
• Same reasonable argument, but still different.
• ACA allows a tobacco surcharge to allow higher costs not included in
ACA’s affordability calculations as long as the employer provides a cost-
free tobacco cessation program.
• While a non-vaccinated surcharge could deter employees enrolling in
the plan or motivate them to receive a vaccination, the employer runs
the risk of accruing very costly penalties.
• This does not mean the ACA will not accommodate this in the future,
but for now we do not know.

21. What can I do now?
• It’s best to wait for legislation to change, but that could take a very long,
undetermined amount of time.
• Penalty versus incentives?
• The safer way to encourage COVID-19 vaccinations is to use non-
coercive incentives.
• Review HIPAA and PPACA regulations on wellness program
incentives.
• Before implementing an incentive program ensure that you
understand and comply with applicable federal, state, and local
laws and consult legal counsel as needed.
• When all else fails, accommodate for remote working and encourage
masking and social distancing.