Some business leaders are pleading with the Biden administration to delay implementation of a forthcoming COVID-19 vaccination mandate for larger employers, while Arizona has filed for an immediate temporary injunction that, if granted, would halt the requirement.

In September, President Joe Biden announced he’d be moving forward with a mandate that would obligate private and public U.S. companies with more than 100 employees to require that all workers be vaccinated against COVID-19 or to test each unvaccinated employee weekly.

If implemented, the mandate would affect larger firms in the promotional products industry, including Top 40 distributors and suppliers. Employers in promo and all industries would face fines of $14,000 per violation for failing to comply with the order.  

While Biden announced the mandate in September, it hasn’t gone into full effect yet. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration was working on particulars and the Office of Management and Budget has been meeting leaders from various industries last week and early this week as part of a final review. Once the review is complete, the mandate is expected to take effect shortly thereafter.

Some business leaders are hoping that won’t be the case.

They say the mandate could trigger mass resignations and layoffs, consequences of which could be a blow to the U.S. economy and greater labor shortages that would exacerbate supply chain challenges, which have been impacting promo too. That’s led some business groups to plea with the president to wait to effectuate the mandate until after the holiday season, which for the promo industry is often the busiest time of the year.

“If tens or hundreds of thousands of employees are terminated just two weeks before Christmas...the result could be nothing short of catastrophic for the newly unemployed and their families and for the U.S. economy,” Eric Hoplin, president and CEO of the National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors, wrote to Biden. The trade group represents an industry with nearly six million workers.

Retailers are worried, too.

Evan Armstrong, a lobbyist at the Retail Industry Leaders Association, told CNBC that the mandate could cause store workers to walk off the job. An all-time record 4.3 million people in the U.S. quit their jobs in August, the most recent month for which stats were available, federal data shows. Some 721,000 of those resignations occurred in retail.

“It has been a hectic holiday season already, as you know, with supply chain struggles,” Armstrong told CNBC. “This is a difficult policy to implement. It would be even more difficult during the holiday season.”

What do executives at Top 40 #promoproducts firms think of Pres. Biden's vaccine mandates for companies with more than 100 employees? Find out: https://t.co/En8YQfd0fv @ASI_MBell @asicentral @CJ_ASIMedia

— Chris Ruvo (@ChrisR_ASI) September 13, 2021

Beyond labor shortages and greater supply chain troubles during the commerce-bustling fourth quarter, business leaders also have concerns about who will pay for weekly testing of unvaccinated employees – the companies or the employees? The Retail Industry Leaders Association and others believe employees who choose not to get vaccinated should pay for their weekly testing.

CNBC reported that the Biden administration could give businesses about 10 weeks to come into compliance with the mandate, once it’s made official. Still, it could require weekly testing to begin before then.

Meanwhile, the state of Arizona on Friday, Oct. 22, filed for a temporary restraining order that would block the vaccination mandates from going into effect. Arizona first filed a lawsuit against the vaccination requirements in September. It’s now asking for the immediate order to stop any implementation, in part because it says the vaccine deadlines for federal contractors are likely to pass before the case for preliminary injunction can be argued fully in court.

Fox News reported that Arizona also filed an amended lawsuit that argues that the vaccination mandate violates the constitutional rights of workers. Among other things, the suit also argues that the mandate will cause “substantial harm to Arizona’s economy and to Arizona businesses that will either have to fire valuable employees or give up lucrative government contracts.”

If fully implemented, Biden’s mandate is set to affect approximately 100 million workers in the United States. That number includes roughly 17 million workers at healthcare facilities that receive Medicare or Medicaid, and employees of the executive branch and contractors who do business with the federal government. Some promo companies are federal contractors.

Executives in promo have expressed mixed reactions to the mandate.

“I see this as a much-needed step in the fight against COVID and as critical to the recovery of the U.S. economy,” a C-Suite leader at a Top 40 promo company told ASI Media. “While this is understandably a hot-button issue and federal requirements should be a last resort solution, we are unfortunately left with few alternatives.”

Said another Top 40 leader: “On the plus side, this will increase vaccination rates and reduce absenteeism that businesses have to deal with. The downside, and this is not an insignificant one, is that trust in our institutions, which is already badly degraded, will further erode as a result of the compulsory nature of this measure. That’s an issue, because worldwide there is a strong correlation between lack of trust in government and vaccine hesitancy. While I think the benefits to both individuals and businesses from this vaccine mandate are apparent, I harbor concerns about the broader ramifications that a coercive measure such as this is likely to result in.”