Former SC labor director: McMaster right to oppose federal vaccine mandate for workers

COVID-19 is real, but too often, combatting it has done more harm than good, particularly through those efforts that have facilitated the unprecedented growth in the scope and power of the federal government.

An egregious example of Washington killing the fly on our foreheads with the proverbial hammer is the Biden Administration’s announcement that it will issue an Occupational Safety and Health Administration rule mandating that all companies with a workforce of greater than 100 require their employees to receive a COVID-19 vaccine. (I guess the virus will not bother smaller operations.)

Governor McMaster has justifiably announced that he will not implement this new rule within South Carolina’s State OSHA plan, and true to form, the federal government has threatened that it will take the plan.

We cannot tolerate this abuse of federal power.

Congress enacted the Occupational Safety and Health Act in 1970. The law permits states to run their own OSHA plans provided they are as effective as the federal program.

South Carolina was the first state plan nearly 50 years ago, and our OSHA program has operated extremely well, generally considered by its peers and by the federal government as one of the best of its kind.

Now, federal OSHA claims South Carolina’s refusal to implement the new directive will cause our plan to no longer be as effective as the federal plan.

Before acting precipitously on this one rule, though, federal OSHA should consider what it truly means to be “as effective as.”

Here are just a few areas where South Carolina conducts activities which are absent from the federal plan:

1) coverage of the public sector;

2) performance of random inspections; and

3) provision of a robust education and consultation program which works with employers to create safe and healthy workplaces.

Additionally, South Carolina’s injury and illness rate, according to the most recent figures, is 2.4 while the national rate is 2.8. Perhaps, federal OSHA could work harder to be as effective as South Carolina.

There are no compelling reasons for the rule.

This move is a knee-jerk reaction to the crisis and has not yet received the scrutiny major workplace regulations should undergo. Hundreds of thousands of businesses have taken extraordinary steps to protect their employees from COVID, and they did not need the threat of OSHA enforcement to do so.

Also, this rule will likely wreak havoc on our economy. A human resources professional in a large Upstate manufacturer recently told me that this rule would end their operations, as they have too many employees who, for whatever reason, would quit before getting the vaccination. Many employers share his concern.

I believe in the vaccine, but I also believe it is a private choice not to be coerced by government.

Governor McMaster should continue to stand up to federal OSHA coercion and refuse to implement this unnecessary rule.

Lewis F. Gossett is the former President and CEO of the South Carolina Manufacturers Alliance and former Director of the S.C. Department of Labor during the Beasley Administration from 1995-1999.