TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Thursday vowed to sue President Joe Biden’s administration over a mandate on businesses to vaccinate or test workers for COVID-19, but he also suggested the state might need to pass its own law to prevent businesses from imposing their own mandates.
“We are going to contest that immediately. We think the state of Florida has standing to do it and we also know businesses that we’re going to work with to contest it,” the Republican governor told reporters in Lee County. “I think the mandate is going lose in court.”
Biden last month said he would require businesses with more than 100 workers to require employees to get the COVID-19 vaccine or show negative test results on a weekly basis. Also, health care facilities that receive funds through Medicare or Medicaid would also be required to have their workers vaccinated.
The text of the mandate hasn’t been made public. It will be issued through a rule from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, a branch of the federal government regulating workplace safety. National news outlets have reported the rule will be published in the coming days.
DeSantis said Biden doesn’t have the authority to issue such a rule without congressional approval.
DeSantis also said he’d back state legislation to allow workers to sue businesses if they are fired or face retaliation for not getting the COVID-19 vaccine.
“I also think that we have a responsibility at the state level to do whatever we need to do legislatively to be able to protect Floridians from mandates that could result in them losing their jobs,” DeSantis said. “We have to protect the jobs of Floridians.”
DeSantis’ administration is already investigating scores of businesses, local governments and nonprofits for violating a state law he signed earlier this year prohibiting cities and companies from requiring “vaccine passports” from customers to receive services. The law allows the Florida Department of Health to issue $5,000 fines for each violation.
But DeSantis has since interpreted the law to apply to local governments trying to require workers to get vaccines. His administration joined a lawsuit against the city of Gainesville, which later reversed its vaccine mandate for city employees.
And Wednesday DOH levied a $3.57 million fine on Leon County for its vaccine mandate for workers. The county fired 14 workers out of more than 700 for not getting the shot. County leaders said they would contest the fine.
Despite the ongoing investigations of businesses, however, DOH hasn’t issued fines to private employers. The section of SB 2006, the law banning vaccine passports, that deals with cities and counties is written differently than the section applying to businesses.
The first provision states businesses may not require “patrons or customers” to provide vaccination documents, while the second provision states governments may not require “persons” to provide vaccination documentation.
DeSantis seemed to acknowledge the protections for businesses against COVID-19 liability lawsuits earlier this year went too far. At his urging, GOP lawmakers passed measures guarding companies against lawsuits from customers claiming to have contracted COVID-19 at their business.
“We provided good protection, but you know businesses turn around and now they’re imposing mandates, then that protection to me is something we would want to peel back from those businesses,” DeSantis said.
DeSantis’ comments stopped short of a formal proposal for legislation. Unless DeSantis or legislative leaders call a special session, any new law would have to be passed in the next legislative session, which begins Jan. 11, and couldn’t take effect until the spring.
“If a business forces somebody to do this then that employee, if there’s anything that happens negatively as a result of that coercion, they should be able to go in and sue and get compensation and get damages for that,” DeSantis said.
———
