In the letter, which was sent to Assistant Secretary of Labor Douglas Parker on Friday, Ivey urged OSHA to not adopt its COVID-19 Vaccination and Testing Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS) as a “final standard or rule” as she claims the ETS is “misguided” and that any standard based off of it would be a “mistake.”
While voicing her opposition to the vaccine mandate, which is facing numerous court battles, Ivey urged OSHA to discontinue the mandate “sooner, rather than later” as it increases “vaccine skepticism in Alabama” and continues to “disrupt the State’s economy.”
She also stated she believes a final standard based on the ETS could be “harmful to businesses in Alabama” as “significant percentages of Alabama’s workforce have not received at least one dose” of the vaccine.
“Given all the efforts to educate and persuade Alabamians of the vaccine’s safety and effectiveness, I can only conclude that many Alabamians have profound – and sincere – medical, religious, or other reasons not to take it,” Ivey wrote. “I believe that enforcement of the ETS may lead many Alabamians to quit their jobs and leave the workforce – in the middle of a substantial labor shortage, no less – or to seek work at businesses not covered by the mandate.”
Ivey continued, saying that “disruption would interrupt people’s careers and threaten their livelihoods and the well-being of their families” and could “damage the productivity and bottom lines of businesses statewide.”
“If a federal court strikes down the ETS, well and good,” Ivey wrote. “If not, I ask that OSHA not continue its provisions under a final standard. The economic damage likely would be great. Ending the provisions sooner rather than later could lessen the damage likely to be caused by them.”
