Several weeks ago, I suggested that you stay tuned for the latest developments—that we wouldn’t know much about the Biden vaccine mandate until we had actually read any Presidential executive orders. Well, we can now read two of these:

Federal contractors need to watch this issue very closely. The White House hasn’t released a copy of the official Presidential executive order, but only a fact sheet. So we can’t tell you all the ramifications of this order—except to say that it can be a mine field for employers. So far, two critical issues haven’t been addressed:

In the waning days of the Trump Administration, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) issued a new final regulation about classifying workers as either employees or independent contractors. The announcement indicated the regulation would take effect on March 8, 2021.

On February 12, 2021, Alabama Governor Kay Ivey signed a bill to provide immunity from lawsuits related to COVID-19. The Alabama Senate passed the bill on February 4. The Alabama House of Representatives passed the bill on February 11. We have found no changes that the House made to the Senate version of the bill. Formerly known as Senate Bill 30, it is now Alabama Act 2021-4 as a result of the governor’s signature and went into effect as soon as the governor signed the bill.