UPDATE ON OSHA ETS AND REMINDER OF IMPORTANT COVID PROTOCOLS
Date: January 14, 2022
To: All Idaho Youth Ranch Employees
From: Steve Robertson, Chief People Officer
Dear Idaho Youth Ranch Colleagues,
Yesterday afternoon the U.S. Supreme Court blocked the OSHA Emergency Temporary Standard on Vaccination and Testing (“ETS”) that would have required weekly testing of unvaccinated employees starting in early February. Although this is not a final ruling, we are not currently planning to conduct the weekly testing that would have been required under the ETS. We will continue to monitor the legal proceedings and keep you updated as we learn more.
In the meantime, we continue to follow the guidance of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to maintain the safety of our team members, clients, and customers. This includes the items below. Please contact HR@youthranch.org with any questions.
- Employees who are not vaccinated and cleared by HR must continue to wear a mask indoors except when working alone behind a closed door. Contact your supervisor with any questions.
- We encourage all staff to get vaccinated and boosted against COVID. Please send your vaccine record to HR@youthranch.org. Per recent CDC guidance, if you do not have an up-to-date COVID vaccine* and you experience a close contact, you will be required to stay away from work for up to five days. This may require you to use your regular sick or vacation pay or be in a no-pay situation, even if you don’t have symptoms.
- With the current surge of the omicron variant breaking out across our region, all staff are reminded to maintain 6 feet of distance. This will help minimize your chance of having a close contact here at work.
- Masks are still required of all staff in indoor public areas (e.g. Thrift sales floors and the public lobby of Building 2 at Nagel).
- Masks are still required of all staff when indoors in all Programs locations (subject to previously communicated exceptions).
- In accordance with guidance from the CDC, we recently revised the protocols for staff members who develop COVID symptoms, test positive, or experience a close contact. Please see our prior memo for additional details.
*An up-to-date COVID vaccine means either: (1) you completed the Pfizer or Moderna two-dose vaccine less than 6 months before the close contact or you received the booster, or (2) you received the J&J vaccine less than 2 months before the close contact or you received the booster.