Adverse Reactions to Employer Mandated COVID-19 Vaccines Are OSHA Recordable Cases

If your company is requiring its employees to get vaccinated against COVID-19 it runs the risk of acquiring recordable illness cases. Recent revisions to OSHA’s frequently asked questions (FAQs) and answers related to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic indicates that OSHA considers employees’ negative reactions to the COVID-19 vaccines to be “work-related” and therefore, subject to recordkeeping and reporting mandates when an employer “requires” the vaccination. The question and answer from the updated FAQs follows.

If I require my employees to take the COVID-19 vaccine as a condition of their employment, are adverse reactions to the vaccine recordable? If you require your employees to be vaccinated as a condition of employment (i.e., for work-related reasons), then any adverse reaction to the COVID-19 vaccine is work-related. The adverse reaction is recordable if it is a new case under 29 CFR 1904.6 and meets one or more of the general recording criteria in 29 CFR 1904.7.

Updated FAQs