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The Associated General Contractors of America, along with two other construction groups, filed a legal challenge Monday to the Biden Administration’s workplace vaccine requirement.

AGC joined the American Road and Transportation Builders Association and the Signatory Wall and Ceiling Contractors Alliance in filing a petition challenging a rule that will require employees of large contractors to be vaccinated or undergo regular COVID-19 testing.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration published an emergency rule earlier this month calling on employers with 100 or more workers to ensure their workers are vaccinated by Jan. 4. In doing so, the AGC joins the Associated Builders and Contractors two dozen states and a variety of other organizations in mounting formal legal challenges of the OSHA mandate.

The trade group’s petition argues OSHA’s order will prompt “badly needed” employees to leave larger contractors or the construction industry at large in order to avoid the vaccine mandate. The legal action, filed in Virginia’s Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, contends OSHA has no statutory authority to require vaccinations.

“The new rule will put many construction companies at grave risk of losing a substantial number of their workers to smaller companies, instead of leading to more people getting vaccinated in the sector,” said Stephen Sandherr, AGC chief executive.

OSHA’s vaccine mandate will affect an estimated 84 million American workers, requiring them to get vaccinated or undergo weekly COVID-19 tests. Companies that don’t comply with the order could be hit with fines running as high as $14,000 for each employee. Biden administration officials have argued the mandate is needed to avoid having a patchwork of local rules and to slow the spread of the virus.

The agency is separately requiring federal contractors and subcontractors to show, by Dec. 8, that their workers have been vaccinated.