United States Postal Service (USPS) employees will receive COVID-19 vaccines under rules issued by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), and not rules for the federal government, multiple outlets reported Thursday.
The Washington Post initially reported that the independent agency, which employed nearly 500,000 people in 2020, would not be required to comply with President Joe Biden’s new executive order tightening vaccine requirements A federal official later clarified to CNN that USPS would still be governed under Labor Department and OSHA rulemaking. The order had not been issued at the time of Biden’s address.
Postal Service workers are not subjected to federal mandate, but fall under the Labor Department rule announced by President Biden aimed at businesses with more than 100 employees, a senior administration official tells CNN, with employees required to vaccinate or test weekly.
— Jeff Zeleny (@jeffzeleny) September 10, 2021
Biden’s new rules “require all federal employees to be vaccinated,” he said at a Thursday press conference.
The White House “strongly encourage[s USPS employees] to comply with” the new vaccine requirements, an official reportedly said.
A USPS spokesperson did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller’s request for comment.
Biden issued an executive order in July requiring federal employees to confirm whether or not they had been vaccinated against COVID-19, or wear face masks and physically distance themselves from coworkers. The administration has since re-implemented a mask mandate.
States such as New York, Maryland and Virginia implemented similar policies for their employees shortly after Biden’s July executive order. (RELATED: California State Employees Must Get Vaccinated Or Get Tested Weekly For COVID-19)
Postal workers pushed back against the requirements at the time, with the American Postal Workers Union (APWU) claiming that it was “not the role of the federal government to mandate vaccinations.”
The APWU, which represents more than 216,000 postal workers, added that it “continues to encourage postal workers to voluntarily get vaccinated.”
Editor’s Note: This article has been updated to reflect recent reporting.