U.S. Postal Service workers will be subject to President Biden‘s new COVID-19 vaccine mandates, according to the White House.
The Washington Post reported Thursday night that the president’s action forcing federal workers to get vaccinated had exempted Postal Service workers but later corrected the error.
Post reporter Jacob Bogage deleted his tweets that cited “a White House official speaking on the condition of anonymity” describing the carve-out for USPS.
The administration clarified that while USPS is an independent entity within the executive branch and not subject to the federal worker mandate, it still falls under the mandate for companies with more than 100 employees.
“USPS is not included in the executive order requiring vaccination of federal employees. USPS has a separate statutory scheme and is traditionally independent of federal personnel actions like this. That said, USPS is strongly encouraged to comply. Also, OSHA will cover USPS through the ETS, meaning that postal workers will be subject to the vaccination or testing policy announced yesterday,” an administration official said Friday in a statement to The Washington Times.
The Postal Service employs almost 650,000 people nationwide.
Many are represented by the American Postal Workers Union, which has been critical of vaccine mandates, saying in July that “it is not the role of the federal government to mandate vaccinations for the employees we represent.”
The union endorsed Mr. Biden in the 2020 presidential campaign.
• Victor Morton can be reached at vmorton@washingtontimes.com.
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