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More and more American companies have started requiring their employees to get their COVID-19[female[feminine gunshots, leaving the unvaccinated with a difficult choice: get stung or look for work elsewhere.
A range of large companies, from CVS Health to United Airlines, have vaccination mandates announced since the Food and Drug Administration last week gave its final approval to the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. What then happens when a worker refuses to be vaccinated?
Under labor law, employers have the right to set their terms of employment – if a worker does not comply, a company can give them the ax. This also applies to COVID-19 vaccinations, according to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
“The EEOC has made it clear that individuals may be required to take the vaccine as a condition of employment. This is subject to requests for accommodation based on medical reasons or genuine religious belief,” Helen Rella, labor lawyer At New York. Law firm Wilk Auslander told CBS MoneyWatch.
Such exemptions may apply if an employee has a medical condition or a sincere religious belief that prevents them from being vaccinated.
“Once an employee requests an accommodation, the employer has an obligation to engage in an interactive discussion with the employee to determine whether an accommodation is possible or not,” explained Rella.
In almost all other cases, an employee who refuses the vaccine can be terminated. For example, a judge in July dismissed a lawsuit by a group of 117 unvaccinated Houston Methodist employees on the vaccine needs of the Houston hospital. More … than 150 employees who refused to be vaccinated against COVID-19 resigned or were fired after the lawsuit was dismissed.
“In the context of employment, we are talking about private employers who have the absolute right to set terms of employment,” said Rella.
Still, there may be other risks of laying off unvaccinated workers, including internal unrest. As a result, only 7% of companies report laying off workers who are not vaccinated, according to a recent survey of 583 companies in various industries by Aon, a provider of financial and healthcare products. Indeed, 38% of those polled said they were extending work-from-home options to unvaccinated workers, while 20% said they required periodic COVID-19 testing.
But that reluctance appears to be changing rapidly, spurred both by the growing acceptance of the vaccine and by the latest wave of coronavirus linked to the highly contagious Delta variant.
“Employers are back at the decision-making table and re-examining these decisions regarding vaccination mandates,” said Aon Chief Medical Officer Dr Neal Mills. “They realize we are in a public health emergency, and they have decided to take over the leadership and review the decisions they need to make to adequately deal with the public health emergency.”
During this time, many companies may not have to lay off non-compliant workers. In some cases, corporate vaccine mandates have taken vaccine hesitancy to extremes, forcing workers who want to stay on to roll up their sleeves.
According to the Axios-Ipsos Coronavirus Index, released on Tuesday, opposition to COVID-19 vaccination has fallen to its lowest level. More than three-quarters of Americans have been vaccinated or say they are likely to be, up two percentage points from mid-July, according to the index.
Among those not vaccinated, about half say they are open to vaccination. Of these, half say that a mandate or employer incentive, such as a raise or bonus, would convince them to get the vaccine.
From September 30, for example, the COVID-19 vaccination will be a condition of employment at Bonanno Concepts, a restaurant group based in Denver, Colorado. The restaurant group said the warrant had already prompted people to get stung.
“We had 20% of our unvaccinated employees – almost 20% – who signed up for the vaccine within 24 hours of deploying this policy,” said Jessica Kinney, personnel manager at Bonanno Concepts.
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