As the Biden administration has joined Republicans in supporting tougher work-search requirements for those receiving unemployment benefits, the president and his aides have insisted that workers will still be allowed to reject jobs at workplaces that are not adequately protecting them from COVID-19.

But with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) failing to provide enforceable national workplace safety standards and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) relaxing its mask guidelines for people who are vaccinated, workers have been left largely at the mercy of state and local governments — as well as their employers.

“Because OSHA did not issue an emergency temporary standard, there are no real federal requirements here,” says Debbie Berkowitz, the Worker Safety and Health program director at the National Employment Law Project (NELP). “Now, with everything reopening, everything is very muddled here on what exactly rights workers do have and what kind of mitigation measures employers need to put into place.”