USPS Asking Joe Biden for Temporary Exemption from Upcoming Vaccine and Testing Mandate

The United States Postal Service (USPS) is asking to be held exempt temporarily from Joe Biden‘s vaccine or testing mandate.

In order to avoid the chance of mail delivery being slowed down, the USPS is requesting Biden to temporarily allow postal workers to work without having to be tested or receive the vaccine. According to NBC News, the request comes days before Biden’s mandate takes effect officially. Biden’s vaccine and testing mandate are in response to the surge in COVID-19 cases in the country, along with the arrival of the harder-to-evade Omicron variant.

In a Jan. 4 letter to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, Deputy Postmaster General Douglas Tulino explained that making Postal Service employees go along with the mandate will “likely to result in the loss of many employees — either by employees leaving or being disciplined.”

The mandate is set to go into effect on Jan. 10, but OSHA says it won’t give companies citations until Feb. 9, or as long as an employer is exercising reasonable, good faith efforts to come into compliance with the standard,” the news outlet reports.

A spokesperson for the USPS said the agency would like to continue with what it’s been doing as far as following COVID-19 safety measures. It added that a waiver would “ensure that its ability to deliver mail and packages are not hindered amid the current disruptions in the nation’s supply chain,” according to The Washington Post, which first reported on the USPS’ request.

OSHA has yet to respond.