AUSTIN, Texas — With VERIFY, we help you sort out the facts. We show our process and our sources.
Question:
Will USPS workers be mandated to get the COVID-19 vaccine under President Joe Biden's new mandates?
Result:
True: Yes, under President Biden's current vaccine plan, USPS workers would be required to get vaccinated for COVID-19 or take a weekly COVID-19 test. They do not fall under the federal employee mandate, but they do fall under the mandate for large companies.
Sources:
Process:
With President Biden's announcement last Thursday of new vaccine mandates, we found confusion all over social media about how the mandate for federal workers does or does not apply to the United States Postal Service.
Most of the confusion spurs from the relationship between USPS and the federal government.
The Federal Register shows the Postal Service is part of the executive branch, so it's operated by federal workers. But it's an independent agency. It gets no tax money and relies on money from stamps and service fees.
So, since USPS is independent, workers would not be required to get the COVID-19 vaccine under President Biden's mandate for federal workers.
But, that's not the end of the story.
On Thursday, Sept. 9, President Biden also announced more vaccine mandates for companies.
The official White House transcript says the Department of Labor "will require all employers with 100 or more employees" to have their workers "fully vaccinated or show a negative test at least once a week."
The Post Office website shows, in 2020, it had nearly 495,941 employees. So, because that is well over 100 employees, USPS falls into this group and will have to require their employees get vaccinated or require them to take a weekly COVID-19 test.
A spokesperson with the USPS sent us this statement:
“The COVID-19 vaccination requirements included in the White House executive order issued on Sept. 9, 2021, for federal employees do not apply to the Postal Service. Regarding other vaccination rules expected to be issued by the federal government, the Postal Service has no comment until those rules are issued and we have had a chance to review them. As an independent Federal agency whose employees have worked on the front lines throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, we are continuously focused on the health and safety of our workforce. This includes measures such as the recent reinstatement of our face covering policy for employees and encouraging all employees who wish to get vaccinated to do so.”
The American Postal Workers Union also released a statement, you can read that by clicking here.
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