Within the $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation bill that passed through the House Budget Committee are new fines that would apply to companies violating Joe Biden’s vaccine mandate.
If the specific provisions of the bill are put into place, the fines - ranging from $70,000 to $700,000 - could bankrupt non-compliant companies, according to a government spending watchdog, Just the News reports.
“Buried on page 168 of the House Democrats’ 2,465-page mega bill is a tenfold increase in fines for employers that ‘willfully,’ ‘repeatedly,’ or even seriously violate a section of labor law that deals with hazards, death, or serious physical harm to their employees,” CEO and founder of OpenTheBooks.com Adam Andrzejewski said.
Last month, Biden announced that all private-sector businesses with 100 or more employees must follow his most recent vaccine mandate or pay a possible fine of up to $14,000 per violation. The order would impact upwards of 80 million Americans.
According to the bill markup, Section 21004 of the OSHA Act of 1970 would be changed to increase fines in the Adjustment of Civil Monetary Penalties section. The changes would increase the maximum penalty to $700,000 for willful and repeat violations; increase the minimum penalty to $50,000 for willful violations; and increase the maximum penalty for both serious and failure-to-abate violations to $70,000.
The markup also amends the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 to increase penalties and fines. It increases maximum civil penalties to $132,270 for child labor violations, $601,150 for child labor violations that cause the death or serious injury of an employee under the age of 18, $20,740 for willful or repeated minimum wage or overtime violations and $11,620 for tip violations.
“The push to increase the fines up to $700,000 per willful and repeated violation was the anticipated emergency rule that OSHA will publish in the Federal Register allowing them jurisdiction to enforce Biden’s vac mandate on private companies,” Andrzejewski said.
