Biden Administration Updates Guidance on Federal Contractor COVID Mandates

The Safer Federal Workforce Task Force has recently updated its COVID enforcement guidance regarding Executive Order 14042 pertaining to federal contractors.  The Task Force website clarifies that “to ensure compliance with an applicable preliminary nationwide injunction, which may be supplemented, modified, or vacated, depending on the course of ongoing litigation, the Federal Government will take no action to implement or enforce Executive Order 14042. For existing contracts or contract-like instruments (hereinafter “contracts”) that contain a clause implementing requirements of Executive Order 14042, the Government will take no action to enforce the clause implementing requirements of Executive Order 14042, absent further written notice from the agency.”

The updated position comes after a series of court decisions regarding injunctions against the federal contractor COVID-19 vaccine mandate that left it unclear whether or how the federal government planned to enforce the vaccine mandate for contractors or jurisdictions that were not covered by injunctions.   It is interesting to note that the updated guidance is not limited to just the vaccine mandate portion of the Executive Order and also includes other COVID-19 workplace safety protocols, such as masking and physical distancing requirements at contractors’ workplaces, and a requirement that contractors designate a person responsible for coordinating COVID-19 safety efforts at the contractors’ workplaces. As a result, it appears that the federal government will no longer require contractors’ employees to wear masks at contractors’ worksites (although employees may still be required to wear masks to enter certain federal facilities).