PHOENIX — On Thursday, Governor Doug Ducey announced that Arizona will challenge the Biden administration’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) rules that will mandate COVID-19 vaccine requirements for private employers with more than 100 or more employees.
The OSHA rules require businesses with more than 100 employees to require that workers either be vaccinated, or that they be tested for COVID-19 every week and masked while at work.
In 1974, the federal government adopted Arizona’s state plan for workplace safety whereby Arizona’s agency, the Industrial Commission of Arizona (ICA), is charged with regulating workplace safety. The state will argue that the federal government is issuing these mandates with no public input from the businesses and employees these regulations affect.
“The lack of a public process in the issuing of these regulations is not that different from taxation without representation. We will continue fighting this to protect the voices of Arizonans and protect the ICA’s long-standing public input process,” said Ducey. “The Biden administration may be afraid to hear from the people on this issue, but we in Arizona value and respect the opportunity to hear from the public.”
“When faceless government bureaucrats dictate what you must inject into your body, that’s the furthest thing in the world from a safe workplace,” said Attorney General Mark Brnovich. “The government doesn’t get to be your nanny, and it’s certainly not your doctor.”